CONTACT US AT: 8351-9186, DEBRA_LIDAN@163.COM

Monday September 4, 2017 16 ENtertainment

Clooney depicts American

nightmare in ‘Suburbicon’GEORGE CLOONEY, whose “Suburbicon” is competing for the Venice Film Festival’s Golden Lion prize, says his latest directorial effort is an angry movie for an angry coun-try — his own.

“A lot of us are angry — angry at ourselves, angry at the way that the country is going, angry at the way the world is going,” Clooney told reporters Saturday in Venice, Italy. At a news con-ference, Clooney said the United States now is “probably the angriest I have ever seen, and I lived through the Watergate period of time.”

“There is a dark cloud hang-ing over our country right now,” he said.

America’s divisions give an unnerving timeliness to “Sub-urbicon.” The satirical fi lm noir stars Matt Damon and Julianne Moore as residents of a seem-ingly idyllic — and all-white — 1950s suburban community that erupts in anger when a black family moves in. It fuses a script by the Coen brothers with a nar-rative about racial divisions.

“I was watching a lot of speeches on the [Trump] campaign trail about build-ing fences and scapegoating

minorities,” Clooney said.That prompted Clooney and

writing-producing partner Grant Heslov to think about other points in United States history when forces of division were in the ascendant. They remembered 1957 events in Levittown, Pennsylvania, a model suburban community where white residents rioted at the arrival of a black family.

They fused that idea to an unproduced script by Joel and Ethan Coen about a similar white-picket-fence community where a crime goes horribly wrong in farcically bloody ways.

“Unfortunately, these are issues that are never out of vogue in our country,” Clooney said ahead of the fi lm’s red carpet premiere. “We are still trying to exorcise these problems. We’ve still got a lot of work to do from our original sin of slavery and racism.”

On one level, “Suburbicon” is a comedy, in which the best-laid plans of Damon’s scheming corporate executive go bloodily astray. Damon and Moore prac-tically explode with suburban repression, and there’s a deli-cious turn by Oscar Isaac as a prying insurance investigator.

(SD-Agencies)

Reality showsDUTCH production giant Talpa has signed a deal with Chinese group 3C Media to adapt a pair of reality TV formats for the Chinese market.

The agreement, unveiled Friday, will see Talpa and 3C adapt Dutch formats “The Story of My Life” and “Around the World with 80-Year-Olds.” “The Story of My Life” takes celebrity couples and, using digital tech-nology, ages them electronically, giving them a view of how they will look 25 and 50 years into the future. Talpa premiered the format at the MIPCOM market in Cannes last year. China will be the 10th country to license a local adaptation.

“Around the World with 80-Year-Olds,” which premiered on Dutch network SBS 6 and has been commissioned for a second season, takes octogenarians who have never left their hometown and sends them on a trip around the world. China will be the fi rst country to do a local-language adaptation.Winner

CLAIRE FOY will receive the British Artist of the Year trophy presented by Burberry at the 2017 British Academy Britannia Awards. Jack White-hall is hosting the event Oct. 27 at the Beverly Hilton, where fellow honorees Dick Van Dyke and Ava DuVernay will also take the stage. Foy joins a list of prior recipients including Felicity Jones, James Corden, Emma Watson, Daniel Craig, Kate Winslet, Tilda Swinton, Helena Bonham Carter, Emily Blunt, Michael Sheen and Rachel Weisz.

Foy is nominated for an Emmy for playing Queen Elizabeth II on Netfl ix’s “The Crown.” Her performance won her a Golden Globe and a SAG Award, along with a BAFTA TV nomination. She will next be seen opposite Andrew Garfi eld in “Breathe,” directed by Andy Serkis.New home baseMADONNA is heading overseas to a new home in Portugal. The Michigan native had been living in New York. She said on Ins-tagram Saturday that she fi nds the energy of Portugal inspiring, and it makes her feel creative and alive.

A spokesman for the singer said she fell in love with the country after ending a tour there in 2004. Madonna posted that she’ll be working on a fi lm and new music in Portugal. She said in her Instagram post: “It’s time to conquer the world from a dif-ferent vantage point.” (SD-Agencies)

At a Glance

DC Comics and Greg Berlanti have found their Dick Gray-son.

Brenton Thwaites, who starred in “Pirates of the Carib-bean: Dead Men Tell No Tales,” has been cast in the lead role as the Boy Wonder in straight-to-series drama “Titans.” The show will debut in 2018 on the DC Comics-branded digital platform.

“Titans” is a live-action drama series that follows a group of young soon-to-be superheroes recruited from every corner of the DC Universe. The story revolves around Dick Grayson, who emerges from the shad-ows to become the leader of a fearless band of new heroes, including Starfi re (Anna Diop), Raven (Teagan Croft) and more. Berlanti, Akiva Goldsman, Geoff Johns and Sarah Schechter will executive-produce.

Comic readers know Dick Grayson as Batman’s famous sidekick, Robin. After Dick’s parents were murdered, Bruce Wayne became Dick’s legal guardian and trained him to fi ght crime beside him. But after years as part of the Dynamic Duo, Dick struggled to fi nd his place outside the Dark Knight’s shadow. Finally striking out as his own man, he emerges as a leader, mentor and father fi gure to his new family, the Titans.

“Brenton has the emotional depth, heart, danger and physi-cal presence of Batman’s former protege and the Titans’ future leader,” Johns said.

Thwaites’ credits also include “The Giver” and “Malefi cent.” He is fi lming “Interview With God,” “Offi ce Uprising” and “Ghosts of War.”

(SD-Agencies)

Brenton Thwaites to

star in ‘Titans’

New Angelina Jolie fi lm takes Telluride by stormA MASSIVE number of people lined up Saturday morning outside of the Telluride Film Festival’s Palm Theater — some for as long as three-and-a-half hours — to see Angelina Jolie and her new fi lm “First They Killed My Father.”

Jolie’s fourth feature directorial effort, like her three prior — “In the Land of Blood and Honey” (2011), “Unbroken” (2014) and “By the Sea” (2015) — is very ambitious and very dark and could be very hard-to-market. Adapted by Loung Ung from her memoir of the same title, the fi lm will be simultaneously released by Netfl ix in select theaters and on its streaming platform Sept. 15 and is a Khmer-language period piece about a family torn apart by the Khmer Rouge. It primar-ily is told from the perspective — literally and fi guratively — of 7-year-old Ung, who is played by young Cambodian Sareum Srey Moch.

What sets the fi lm apart is that it engages its audience and is more than just a history lesson or genre exercise or tribute to its principal character.

“First They Killed My Father” also bears a certain resemblance to another fi lm about children caught up in war, “Beasts of No Nation,” which Netfl ix distrib-uted two years ago.

“We’re making this fi rst and foremost for Cambodia,” Jolie emphasized to the Telluride audience during a brief post-

screening Q&A, adding that Saturday’s screening technically wasn’t the fi lm’s world premiere since she has screened it in

Cambodia for a native audience, many of whom had never seen a movie on a big screen.

(SD-Agencies)

A scene from “First They Killed My father.” SD-Agencies

Brenton ThwaitesBrenton Thwaites

(From L) George Clooney, Julianne Moore and Matt Damon. SD-Agencies