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House of the Dragon favourite stars in glamorous first look at all-new BBC drama from acclaimed writer
TV & Streaming

House of the Dragon favourite stars in glamorous first look at all-new BBC drama from acclaimed writer

by jummy84
written by jummy84

After the success of BBC’s Mood, Nicôle Lecky is back for yet another drama and this time round, Wild Cherry looks to be just as dramatic and twisted as Lecky’s first series.

Not only has Lecky created and written the series, she’s also starring in the show as Gigi, a fellow resident of the affluent neighbourhood of Richford Lake that is drawn into the drama encircling the main mother-daughter duos at the heart of this tale.

The series follows friends Juliet (Eve Best) and Lorna (Carmen Ejogo), two successful working mothers, who are shocked when their daughters get embroiled in a school wide scandal.

Well now, we have a juicy first look at Wild Cherry, thanks to a brand new official trailer that has just landed – and boy, does it look like a series that is prime for a binge-watch.

Alongside the trailer, the official release date for the series has also now been confirmed, and will land on BBC One and iPlayer on Sunday 15th November.

Eve Best as Juliet, Amelia May as Allegra, Carmen Ejogo as Lorna and Imogen Faires as Grace in Wild Cherry. Lesley Edith

“In this town, they had wonderful lives,” we hear Lecky’s Gigi narrate at the start of the trailer. “It was a world of privilege for all of them but in Richford Lake, everyone was hiding something.”

We see flashes of the glamorous lives in question, from Juliet in the middle of a professional photoshoot to Grace (Imogen Faires) and Allegra (Amelia May) enjoying time at their private school together and then, going to parties in lavish homes.

But we then see Allegra admit to a boy that there’s a secret messaging app going round their school and we soon see things get a whole lot darker. It turns out that students have to pay to be featured on there, posting provocative pictures in exchange for likes and comments, it seems.

It’s clear there’s drama brewing in both camps of students and their parents as we see the adults sit down for a dinner party, which looks to be rather tense. But then things take a turn for the worse when we see that one of Grace and Allegra’s friends has gone missing, with the police on the search for the truth.

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As we see both Grace and Allegra’s mugshots on a board in a police station, could they have something to do with it? But that simmering tension boils over into Juliet and Lorna’s own dynamic, with Lorna telling Juliet to not tell her how to parent her own daughter.

“Nobody knew what they were capable of – until it was too late,” we then hear as the scene shows Juliet, Allegra, Lorna and Grace all staring seriously at their reflections in a mirror. Could it be in the aftermath of something terrible? We’ll just have to wait and see.

The official synopsis for Wild Cherry reads: “In Richford Lake things appear perfect for super-mum Juliet (Eve Best) and business mogul Lorna (Carmen Ejogo), but when their teens Grace (Imogen Faires) and Allegra (Amelia May) are accused of a shocking scandal at their exclusive private school, toxic secrets and lies ripple throughout the community.

“A coming-of-age drama for both mothers and daughters as they navigate privilege, power and social media. “Like mother like daughter” rings loudly in a complex world, where danger and betrayal is never far from the surface – even in a perfect town.”

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All episodes of Wild Cherry will be available to watch on Saturday 15th November on BBC iPlayer from 6am and episodes 1 & 2 will premiere on BBC One from 9pm.

Add Wild Cherry to your watchlist on the Radio Times: What to Watch app – download now for daily TV recommendations, features and more.

Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what’s on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.

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Chetan Bhagat
Bollywood

Chetan Bhagat On Being Called ‘Male-Fantasy Writer’: ‘If I Wrote Creepily, My Stories Would Collapse’

by jummy84
written by jummy84

Chetan Bhagat, one of India’s most popular and polarising authors, has once again found himself addressing long-standing criticism — that his books are written from an overwhelmingly male perspective. In a recent conversation, the author of 12 Years: My Messed-Up Love Story opened up about being labelled a “male fantasy” writer and defended his style, intent, and accessibility-driven storytelling.

In his interview with Pinkvilla, Chetan Bhagat was asked about trolls who claimed his latest novel romanticises immaturity rather than exploring a nuanced emotional relationship. The author, visibly exasperated by the perception, responded sharply: “How do I write a book then? Do I co-author the book with a woman? What is this nonsense? I have been writing for 21 years. If the story is not mature, it will not work. If I handle it in a creepy, vulgar way, it will just collapse.”

Also read: ‘I Used To Puke Putting Toothbrush In My Mouth To Lose Weight’, Ashnoor Kaur Recalls Early Days of Her Career

The writer — who has been both celebrated and ridiculed for his bestselling novels — admitted that he faces trolling long before his books even reach readers. “Even before I announce the book, people decide what they are going to say about it,” he said, pointing out that much of the criticism stems from preconceived notions about who he is and the kind of stories he tells.

Chetan Bhagat

Chetan Bhagat sees a hypocrisy in being stereotyped

Bhagat also reflected on what he sees as hypocrisy in the way audiences approach gender representation in writing. “That’s classic stereotyping. These people tell me that I stereotype, but they are stereotyping me,” he said, addressing those who assume that a middle-aged male author writing about younger female characters must be projecting personal fantasies. “They say that if a 45-year-old man writes about a 21-year-old woman, it must be a fantasy. But it is not my fantasy,” he clarified.

Expanding on his challenges as a writer, Bhagat highlighted how misunderstood authors can be in India’s literary ecosystem. “It’s very difficult to be in the writing profession. I am very sensitive to people who write. There is no money. There is no fame. You work for years and you get nothing,” he said, stressing that writing requires discipline and emotional vulnerability that readers often overlook.

He also explained why he keeps his language and storytelling simple — a deliberate choice, not a limitation. “My final presentation is very simple because I have to reach the common man,” Chetan Bhagat said. “I talk in Hindi and present myself as a grounded boy. The way I talk, the way I mention tea — it makes people think ‘isko baja bhi sakte hai.’ And I’m successful, so they see me as someone who doesn’t deserve it because they have struggled in their writing careers.”

In a moment of candid self-awareness, Bhagat added with a laugh, “If I weren’t Chetan Bhagat, I would have hated Chetan Bhagat.” The statement summed up his acceptance of his polarising identity — both admired by millions for democratising English fiction in India, and dismissed by purists who question his literary depth.

Bhagat also shared a rare moment of validation that came from one of Indian cinema’s most respected lyricists and writers, Gulzar. “One person who routinely sends me messages, talks about my columns, and praises my work is Gulzar sahab,” Bhagat revealed with pride. “One of the first things he told my mother was, ‘I wish I could write like your son.’ Nobody who is doing so well and is as successful ever says that.”

This endorsement, Bhagat implied, matters more than the countless anonymous critics online. For him, appreciation from a writer of Gulzar’s calibre underscores the universality and emotional resonance that even the simplest of words can hold.

Chetan Bhagat’s journey as a writer has been both meteoric and controversial. Since his debut with Five Point Someone in 2004, he has carved out a unique space in Indian publishing — not as a literary novelist, but as a storyteller for the masses. His novels, often exploring love, ambition, and middle-class aspirations, have become pop-culture milestones and Bollywood blockbusters. Five Point Someone inspired 3 Idiots; One Night @ The CallCenter was adapted as Hello; The 3 Mistakes of My Life became Kai Po Che!; 2 States mirrored his own inter-community marriage; and Half Girlfriend was turned into a romantic drama by Mohit Suri.

Despite his mass appeal, Bhagat continues to battle perceptions that his work lacks depth or gender balance. But his defence remains consistent: he writes stories that speak to ordinary people, not literary elites. His choice of words, tone, and characters is designed for connection — not for critical validation.

In an age where social media outrage often shapes public perception, Bhagat’s resilience stands out. Whether one sees him as a commercial craftsman or a flawed provocateur, he remains one of the few writers capable of sparking national debate with every release. As he puts it himself — “If I were really as immature or sexist as they say, my books wouldn’t have lasted 21 years.”

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Margaret DePriest
TV & Streaming

‘General Hospital,’ ‘Days of Our Lives’ Writer Was 94

by jummy84
written by jummy84

Margaret DePriest, a onetime actress who spent three decades as a pioneering head writer on such soap operas as General Hospital, Days of Our Lives, All My Children and Another World, has died. She was 94.

DePriest died Sept. 29 of natural causes at her home in Greenwich Village, her daughter, Sara Kimbell, told The Hollywood Reporter.

DePriest had starred in soap operas as Abby Cameron on CBS’ The Edge of Night and as the social worker Mrs. Berger on NBC’s The Doctors when she and her mentor Lou Scofield created the CBS daytime drama Where the Heart Is in 1969. (Network execs at the time praised her for “writing like a man,” Kimbell noted.)

After four years on that show, she joined CBS’ Love of Life in 1975 as head writer, then wrote for The Doctors in 1976 and was an assistant to the producer and a writer/head writer on ABC’s General Hospital from 1978-81, on the scene when Luke (Anthony Geary) and Laura (Genie Francis) got married in Port Charles.

DePriest moved to NBC’s Days of Our Lives, and during her three seasons there, she and fellow head writers Pat Falken Smith and Sheri Anderson re-invented the town of Salem — giving it a riverfront, hilltop mansions, new restaurants, etc. — and introduced the blue-collar Brady family to viewers.

She also came up with the riveting storyline about the serial killer known as The Salem Strangler and helped write the 1985 wedding of yet another daytime supercouple, Bo & Hope (Peter Reckell and Kristian Alfonso).

DePriest later was a head writer on NBC’s Another World in 1986-88, on ABC’s All My Children in 1989-90, on ABC’s One Life to Live in 1990-91, on Another World again in 1996-97 and on NBC’s Sunset Beach — where she loved working for Aaron Spelling — in 1998-99.

Along the way, she received Daytime Emmy nominations for outstanding drama series writing in 1981 for General Hospital, in 1984 and 1985 for Days of Our Lives, in 1990 for All My Children and in 1992 for One Live to Live.

DePriest was “exacting and unafraid to challenge executives,” her daughter said, adding that “she favored strong female leads and layered storylines that tackled social change, class and identity.”

One of seven children, Margaret Lou DePriest was born during the Depression on April 19, 1931, in Bristow, Oklahoma. Her mother, Drusilla, was a homemaker who arrived in town from Kentucky in a covered wagon, and her father, Oscar, worked in the oil fields. Neither ever learned to read or write.

Woody Guthrie used to wander onto her family’s porch and sing with her dad.

DePriest won a full drama scholarship to the University of Oklahoma and after college acted on stages in Dallas and hosted two local TV shows, Ladies First and Maggie and Her Friends, a kids program with puppets. After that, she came to New York in the 1950s with her first husband, actor-singer Glenn Kezer, who wound up in the original My Fair Lady on Broadway.

In 1958, she found work as a stage manager and actress in an off-Broadway production of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, which revolved around a witch hunt in another town called Salem.

DePriest enjoyed a big year in 1965 when she originated the role of Abby on The Edge of Night (while ghostwriting scripts for Scofield); won a best actress Obie Award for her turn in The Place for Chance; and starred alongside Jan Sterling in another off-Broadway drama, Friday Night.

From left, Jan Sterling, Eunice Brandon and Margaret DePriest in 1965 in ‘Friday Night’ at the Pocket Theatre in New York.

Bert Andrews/Courtesy Everett Collection

After appearing on a 1968 episode of ABC’s N.Y.P.D., she put acting aside to concentrate on writing.

In the late 1970s, DePriest and her family moved to Los Angeles. She had been penning scripts in New York for her L.A.-based shows, and “back then there were no computers, fax, FedEx or email — just typewriters, carbon paper and ‘the overnight pouch,’” her daughter noted.

She also wrote short stories and a 1982 play for the East West Players company in Los Angeles that was directed by Shizuko Hoshi and Tony-winning actor Mako.

Her second husband was Paul B. Price, an actor and TV writer who portrayed the frisky Claude Perkins in the Broadway and big-screen versions of the madcap comedy The Ritz. Both her marriages ended in divorce.

In addition to her daughter, survivors include her son, Jake; son-in-law Wayne; and grandchildren Eli and Chaya.

“My mom began every morning with The New York Times crossword — in pen,” her daughter said. “She was a lifelong, voracious reader; a lover of poetry (especially Seamus Heaney) and literature; and a lifelong seeker of knowledge. She read the Bible and the Quran not for faith, but as literature. She loved architecture, art, history, flowers — she had a great green thumb — antiques and beauty in all forms.”

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Yolonda E. Lawrence
TV & Streaming

Writer and Producer on ‘Empire,’ ‘Riverdale’

by jummy84
written by jummy84

TV writer and producer Yolonda E. Lawrence, who worked on series including Fox’s Empire and The CW’s Riverdale, died unexpectedly in Los Angeles on Friday. She was 56.

A native of Brooklyn and graduate of Syracuse University, Lawrence moved to Los Angeles in the early 1990s to work in the industry. She began as a production assistant and production coordinator on series’ including The Crew, a comedy co-created by Marc Cherry, and the Fox drama 413 Hope St. before becoming an assistant to showrunners Dawn Prestwich and Nicole Yorkin (Chicago Hope, Judging Amy), who mentored her as a writer.

Lawrence landed her first staff job on the CBS drama Shark in 2006. She penned episodes of Lincoln Heights, Reaper, Shondaland’s Star-Crossed, ABC Family’s The Nine Lives of Chloe King and Witches of East End, among other shows.

She was a writer and supervising producer of Riverdale in 2017-18 before moving to Empire, where she rose to co-executive producer and co-developed a potential spinoff focused on Taraji P. Henson’s character with Danny Strong and Stacy A. Littlejohn. Recent credits included Showtime’s The First Lady, Peacock’s Bel-Air and Tyler Perry’s BET series Sistas. She also served as a mentor to a number of young Black creatives and others seeking a place in the industry.

Lawrence is survived by her mother, Barbara Simon, and siblings Ayana Simon and Craig Simon. A memorial service is being planned for this month in Los Angeles.

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'After the Hunt' Writer Nora Garrett: Ending Explained, and Changes
TV & Streaming

‘After the Hunt’ Writer Nora Garrett: Ending Explained, and Changes

by jummy84
written by jummy84

[Editor’s note: The following interview contains spoilers for “After the Hunt,” including its ending.]

Over the course of nearly two hours, Julia Roberts’ character in Luca Guadagnino’s “After the Hunt” really goes through it. When the film, written by first-time screenwriter Nora Garrett, first opens, Roberts’ Yale philosophy professor Alma Imhoff is mostly concerned with a looming decision regarding her tenure at the Ivy League institution. Everything else in her life? It seems sort of great.

And then. As the film unspools, it simultaneously unravels nearly every element of Alma’s life. After a boozy evening at Alma’s, one of her favorite students (Ayo Edibiri as Maggie) accuses one of Alma’s favorite co-workers (Andrew Garfield as Hank) of a heinous crime. As we learn more about Alma’s own background, we watch her react toward both Maggie and Hank (and even her own husband, played by Michael Stuhlbarg) in increasingly alarming ways. Her health suffers. Her work suffers. She crumbles. And when Maggie, distraught over the ways in which her accusations have been weaponized against her, goes to Rolling Stone for a no-holds-barred interview that puts Alma in the crosshairs.

Jafar Panahi and Martin Scorsese

Well, for a little bit. The immediate aftermath of the publication of the interview sees Alma (who has already been denied her tenure, due to her stealing a fellow professor’s prescription pad to procure pain meds, oopsie) surrounded by angry Yale students, stressing her to the point she collapses. She ends up in the hospital, where she reveals the truth of both her ravaged health and a past love affair to her baffled husband, Frederik.

That would be a fine enough place to end the story, and in Garrett’s original screenplay, the final pages only extended that misery. In the draft of the screenplay she first sold to Imagine Entertainment before it landed on Guadagnino’s desk, Frederik actually leaves Alma, who resigns from Yale and then travels home to Sweden.

There, in the original script, she attempts to reconnect with the mother of her father’s deceased best friend (whom Alma had, by her own telling, a life-altering love affair with when she was just a young teenager). After the affair (or, let’s be clear, the abusive relationship) ended, a heartbroken Alma told everyone the man abused her, and even though she later told people she was lying. It eventually led to his suicide. But Alma has never gotten over the man, and considers him the great love of her life. His mother does not show up.

Alma also visits her aging parents and tearfully tells them about said great love affair. Her mom’s advice? No one ever gets over anything. How’s that for Swedish stoicism? Later, Alma returns home to New Haven, and testifies in support of Maggie. C’est fin.

'After The Hunt'
‘After The Hunt’Amazon MGM Studios

But in Guadagnino’s final film, none of that happens. Frederik doesn’t leave Alma. She doesn’t resign from Yale. She doesn’t go home to Sweden. And she sure as hell doesn’t testify for Maggie. Instead, after we see Alma in the hospital, the film jumps ahead five years, only to find that Alma, once the subject of mass derision (on campus and on the internet) is now the dean of Yale.

“So, when Luca first attached, he basically said, ‘OK, I love everything about this film except for the last 20 pages,’” Garrett told IndieWire during a recent interview. “And so, it was immediately right out in the open that he wanted the ending to shift. Partially, because when you think about the reality of how life works, Luca is very intentional and also very committed to truth and reality and verisimilitude.”

The way the director saw it, Garrett said, was that someone like Alma would never just give up, give in, roll over, and run away.

“The idea that someone like Alma, who had been searching her whole life for this, clawing her way towards this, making so many internal sacrifices for this thing, would give it up so easily, felt false to Luca,” Garrett said. “It felt like a very constructed character turn, as opposed to a holistic one. Looking at the world that we have … it’s really hard to let go of your identity, and it’s really hard to let go of everything that’s been bulwarking that identity, just because someone else tells you you have to. He felt like Alma was more of a fighter than that. And so, that’s how we began sort of reconstructing the ending of the film.”

It’s not just that Alma has risen to the highest echelons at Yale, but we also catch up with her on a day in which she’s seeing Maggie for the first time in many years. The pair meet for lunch at the same Indian buffet where we earlier saw Alma and Hank having a fraught interaction. Both women have changed — not just in terms of their careers, but their sartorial choices, which used to be very aligned, all natty blazers and button-up shirts — and they seem happy to see each other, if guarded about the whole thing. Maggie is surprised to hear that Alma is still with Frederik, and Alma marvels over Maggie’s giant engagement ring.

Still, Maggie is clear: She spent a long time waiting to see Alma really taken down a peg. And while that ending existed in Garrett’s original screenplay, it’s just not the case in the final film. Some people don’t get punished for their misdeeds, and they certainly don’t learn from their mistakes.

“I think we’re all being careful not to offer some sort of polemic to people,” the writer said. “But I do feel like, to me, that ending scene feels very much like, ‘Ah, right.’ That is sort of what happens sometimes. Maggie says to Alma, ‘I spent so long wishing for you to fail,’ and I think that the truth of life is that these things we think are going to be seismic and dramatic, they can be internally, but sometimes there’s not quite the one-to-one ratio of retribution that we think is going to be there.”

Amazon/MGM releases “After the Hunt” in limited theaters on Friday, October 10 with a wide release to follow on Friday, October 17.

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Comedy Doc 'Downey Wrote That' Trailer on SNL Writer Jim Downey
Hollywood

Comedy Doc ‘Downey Wrote That’ Trailer on SNL Writer Jim Downey

by jummy84
written by jummy84

Comedy Doc ‘Downey Wrote That’ Trailer on SNL Writer Jim Downey

by Alex Billington
October 9, 2025
Source: YouTube

“Jim may be the funniest human I know.” 🤣 Peacock has debuted the trailer for a streaming documentary special titled Downey Wrote That, as part of their ongoing “Saturday Night Live” celebrations. The hour-long doc explores the sketches, contributions and influence of Jim Downey – SNL’s longest-running writer who coined “strategery” mocking President George W. Bush and was once called the “best political humorist alive.” While diving into the storied history of TV’s most iconic & longest-running comedy institution, this will uncover the mastery of Downey’s craft as the show’s behind-the-scenes comedic architect for over three decades. Largely unseen by audiences, Jim is the prolific writer behind many of SNL’s most unforgettable sketches, quotable lines and groundbreaking political satire. This doc features interviews with tons of SNL regulars including Fred Armisen, Dana Carvey, Will Forte, Al Franken, Bill Hader, Darrell Hammond, David Letterman, Jon Lovitz, Seth Meyers, Lorne Michaels, and many more. This looks like a delightfully upbeat & worthy tribute to one of the great comedy writers. We never see them, but they still deserves all the acclaim.

Here’s the official trailer for Brent Hodge’s doc Downey Wrote That, direct from Peacock’s YouTube:

Downey Wrote That Doc Trailer

Downey Wrote That Doc Trailer

Downey Wrote That is a documentary exploring the sketches, contributions and enduring influence of Jim Downey, one of the most impactful comedy writers in the history of “Saturday Night Live.” The hour-long doc film will uncover the mastery of Downey’s craft as the show’s behind-the-scenes comedic architect for over three decades. Downey Wrote That is directed by doc filmmaker Brent Hodge (aka Hodgee), director of the docs A Brony Tale, I Am Chris Farley, The Pistol Shrimps, Who Let the Dogs Out, The Holy Game, Pharma Bro, Viagra: The Little Blue Pill That Changed the World, Harder Better Faster Stronger, and the doc series 50,000 First Dates: A True Story previously. Produced by Broadway Video. Executive produced by Lorne Michaels, Susan Morrison, Andy Breckman, Erin David, Eddie Michaels, Oz Rodriguez, and Brent Hodge. Network Entertainment’s Derik Murray and Brian Gersh are co-executive produce. NBC will debut Downey Wrote That streaming on Peacock starting on October 17th, 2025 this fall. Who wants to watch?

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Find more posts in: Documentaries, Streaming, To Watch, Trailer

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Bia Fires Back At Cardi B's Album Diss: 'I'm Not About To Keep Going Back And Forth With You And The Writer'
Celebrity News

Bia Fires Back At Cardi B’s Album Diss: ‘I’m Not About To Keep Going Back And Forth With You And The Writer’

by jummy84
written by jummy84

Bia Fires Back At Cardi B’s Album Diss: ‘I’m Not About To Keep Going Back And Forth With You And The Writer’

Bia is not holding back after Cardi B threw shots at her on her new album.

The Massachusetts rapper addressed the situation during a recent appearance on Hot 97, making it clear she has no interest in trading bars with Cardi.

“What am I supposed to do…keep rapping with Pardison? I’m not about to keep going back and forth with you and the writer,” Bia said, referring to Cardi’s collaborations with songwriter Pardison Fontaine.

The comment comes after Cardi’s lyrics In “Pretty & Petty” targeted Bia, reigniting tension between the two female rappers.

What are your thoughts on Cardi’s Bia’s diss?

@Hot97


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Playful Biopic Of The 20th Century's Most Influential Writer
TV & Streaming

Playful Biopic Of The 20th Century’s Most Influential Writer

by jummy84
written by jummy84

“Franz is a writer who doesn’t like to talk,” says Franz Kafka’s agent in this playful and oddly endearing biopic of the enigmatic Czech author, who died in 1924 aged just 40. Kafka’s output was slim but influential, the film notes, reporting that works about Kafka outnumber pieces by him at a rate of 10 million to one. That ratio is more impressive given that they were smuggled out of Europe in a suitcase at the dawn of the Second World War, and, given Kafka’s Jewish roots, could very easily have been lost forever. Coincidentally, Agnieska Holland’s film Franz — which competes in Competition at this year’s San Sebastian Film Festival — appears shortly after the loss of another mighty 20th century artist, David Lynch, who described Kafka as “the one artist that I feel could be my brother”. Lynch would likely have approved of this experimental take on Kafka’s life, with its dryly humorous flourishes and rich, almost Magrittean color palette.

Like Lynch, Kafka’s work both invites interpretation and refuses it at the same time, and it’s to the director’s credit that Holland — working from an intelligent script by Marek Epstein — stays clear of amateur psychology. Though she does illustrate one of his key texts (the gruesome short story In the Penal Colony, which causes outrage at its first public reading), Holland doesn’t look to his life for explanations. Instead, by mapping out his relatively normal upbringing — there is nothing at all “Kafkaesque” about it, to use the word coined to describe his enduringly surreal and dark bureaucratic fables — Franz marvels at the depth and strangeness of his intellect, which confounds his overbearing father who takes a dim view of his son’s “stupid writing”.

Franz doesn’t say as much out loud, but it seems likely that Kafka was on what we now call the spectrum, as we see in an early scene where he demands change of a two-krone coin from a bemused street beggar. But part of Kafka’s drive is something altogether less tangible; art was soon to enter its avant-garde phase in the early 20th century, and the writer turns out to be much more bohemian than his bourgeois upbringing suggests, showing a keen interest in underground Yiddish theater. Key to understanding this is his bizarre relationship with Felice Bauer (Carol Schuler), his on-off fiancée; Kafka — played with a charismatic opacity by Idan Weiss — seems neither to find her attractive nor does he want to be with her, a tension that doesn’t quite pan out the way you might expect.

In the meantime, as Kafka finds his voice, so does Prague, and it’s significant that the film takes place against the gentrification of the Czech capital and its break with Germany as an occupying culture (Holland, who studied there as a student in the ’60s, seems especially alert to this particular paradigm shift). And aside from some very modern artistic flourishes — including the fact that each character around Kafka breaks the fourth wall to discuss him — Holland brings the film explicitly into the modern day by taking us to the Franz Kafka Museum and teasing us with the concept of a Kafka Burger restaurant. Adding to the otherworldly ambience is the shifting jazz-folk score by Mary Komasa and Antoni Łazarkiewicz, which, like our hero, is similarly protean in nature.

Kafka’s short life is convenient for the purposes of storytelling, and it fits quite neatly into the film’s two-hour running time. The writer’s illness — tuberculosis of the larynx — is seen as a particularly cruel horror, albeit one in lockstep with his morbid imagination, which continued to work overtime. Surprisingly, in contrast to perceptions of Kafka as an introverted artist, locked away in his lonely garret, Franz shows him as a relatively robust, if skinny, young man, given to frequent exercise and a regular patron of the most absurd sanatoriums in Europe, a cue for lots of very amusing — not to mention acrobatic — full-frontal male nudity.

The one constant in Holland’s film is an unusual one for a biopic; the traditional approach being that each individual presents different facets of their true selves to different people. But in Franz, Kafka is pretty resolute in his identity and his eccentricities, notably in his insistence on writing all his now-famous literary works by hand. Everyone around him can agree on who Franz Kafka is, the bigger question is what. As the museum tour guide puts it: “Kafka’s work is locked, and he took the keys with him.” Holland’s film — selected by Poland as this year’s Oscar contender — invites you to ponder the conundrum that he left behind.

Title: Franz
Festival: San Sebastian (Competition)
Director: Agnieska Holland
Screenwriter: Marek Epstein
Cast: Idan Weiss, Carol Schuler, Jenovéfa Boková, Peter Kurth, Ivan Trojan, Sandra Korzeniak, Katharina Stark, Sebastian Schwarz Aaron Friesz
Sales agent: Films Boutique
Running time: 2 hrs 7 mins

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Brett James, 'Jesus, Take the Wheel' Writer, Dead at 57 in Plane Crash
Music

Brett James, ‘Jesus, Take the Wheel’ Writer, Dead at 57 in Plane Crash

by jummy84
written by jummy84

Brett James, the Grammy-winning country songwriter behind hits like Carrie Underwood’s “Jesus, Take the Wheel” and Kenny Chesney’s “Out Last Night,” died Thursday when the plane he was piloting crashed in North Carolina. The Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, which inducted James in 2020, confirmed his death in a Facebook post. He was 57.

James was reportedly piloting a Cirrus SR22T plane, which took off from Nashville’s John C. Tune Airport Thursday afternoon before crashing in North Carolina.

While James’ biggest achievement was Underwood’s “Jesus, Take the Wheel,” which won him the Grammy Award for Best Country Song in 2006, the Nashville songwriter was responsible for some of the genre’s most recognizable and enduring radio hits. He co-wrote Kenny Chesney’s “When the Sun Goes Down,” Dierks Bentley’s “I Hold On,” Martina McBride’s “Blessed,” and Jason Aldean’s “The Truth,” among many others, and was regarded as one of Music City’s most sough-after collaborators.

“I always say there’s two ways to grow old as a songwriter,” James told PBS’s The Songwriters series earlier this year. “One way is to sit with a young 18-year-old or 19-year-old and think you know everything…. And the other is to listen, and the other is to learn. What I’m trying to do every day now, is to soak up the brilliance of the young kids that I am fortunate enough to work with and then sprinkle in whatever experience and knowledge that I have.”

Born Brett James Cornelius on June 5, 1968, in Columbia, Missouri, James was raised in Oklahoma and, after earning a degree at Baylor University in Texas, attended medical school at the University of Oklahoma before dropping out to move to Nashville in 1992 and pursue music. James released his debut album in 1995 and had modest success as a solo artist, but it was his songwriting for other Nashville artists that gave him his award-winning career.

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He scored his first Number One song in 2001 with “Who I Am,” recorded by Jessica Andrews, and went on to land a total of 27 country chart-toppers, including McBride’s “Blessed,” Chesney’s “Out Last Night,” Underwood’s “Cowboy Casanova,” Bentley’s “I Hold On,” and Chris Young’s “The Man I Want to Be.” He also wrote songs for artists outside of Nashville, like Bon Jovi, Backstreet Boys, the Fray, and Daughtry.

Bentley, who is also a pilot, remembered his “I Hold On” collaborator in a social media post. “Fellow aviator. One of the best singer-songwriters in our town…total legend,” he wrote. “Our friendship and that song changed my life.”

But it’s “Jesus, Take the Wheel,” cowritten with Hillary Lindsey and Gordie Sampson, that stands as James’ signature. A song about a young mother who loses control of her car while driving on Christmas Eve and throws her fate into God’s hands, it became a song of faith and trust and resonated with fans across genres, crossing over to the Hot 100.

Along with winning the Grammy for Best Country Song, it was named 2005 Single of the Year by the Academy of Country Music, Country Song of the Year by the performing-rights organization ASCAP in 2006, and the 2006 Song of the Year by the National Songwriters Association International.

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“That was a great day, obviously,” James told The Tennessean in 2020 of writing the song. “We showed up like all songwriters do at the crack of 11:00. We just talked about life for about the first hour or so like all songwriters do. And then it was finally time to write a song today.

“I tell you what’s crazy is how many people have that story of driving in a car and almost crashing, or feeling like they were pulled out by an angel,” James continued. “It’s interesting that it really touched a nerve. So, it’s been a true blessing.”

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Amazon picks up rights to Life Is Strange with Kaos creator as writer and showrunner
TV & Streaming

Amazon picks up rights to Life Is Strange with Kaos creator as writer and showrunner

by jummy84
written by jummy84

The games centre around 18-year-old photography student Max Caulfield, who learns that she is capable of rewinding time.

Based on the premise of the butterfly effect, by which changing small things in the present can radically alter the future, the narrative unfolds in different ways depending on how players choose to use this power to interact with the world.

The show is set to be written by Charlie Covell, the writer behind hit shows such as Netflix’s Kaos and The End of the F***ing World, who will also serve as executive producer and showrunner.

KAOS creator Charlie Covell will act as writer and showrunner. Netflix

They will be joined by executive producers Dmitri M. Johnson, Mike Goldberg and Timothy I. Stevenson under their Story Kitchen production company.

The series comes from the game’s original publisher Square Enix, as well as Story Kitchen, Lucky Chap and Amazon MGM Studios producing.

On the project, Story Kitchen’s Johnson and Goldberg said, “Story Kitchen has always believed that Life Is Strange deserved to be more than just a game – it’s a cultural touchstone.

“After a decade-long journey, we’re honoured to be bringing this beloved story to Amazon MGM alongside our incredible partners at Square Enix, our brilliant showrunner/writer Charlie Covell, and the amazing team at LuckyChap.

“Together, this thoughtfully assembled dream team is ready to share Life Is Strange with the world in an entirely new way!”

Covell was equally enthusiastic about the chance to work on the game, stating “It’s a huge honour to be adapting Life Is Strange of Amazon MGM Studios. I am a massive fan of the game, and I’m thrilled to be working with the incredible teams at Square Enix, Story Kitchen and Lucky Chap

“I can’t wait to share Max and Chloe’s story with fellow players and new audiences alike.”

The original Life Is Strange, first released in 2015, received widespread acclaim from both critics and players, largely for its characters and storytelling.

Since then, Life Is Strange 2, released in two chunks across 2018 and 2019, and 2024’s Life Is Strange: Double Exposure have proven rather more divisive, garnering mixed reviews, having been perceived to lack aspects of what made the original so special.

Check out more of our Gaming coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what’s on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.

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