"WHEN THE LIGHTS WENT OUT" new poster - photography by one of the world's best photographers RANKIN
GUN-toting Michelle Ryan takes a killer new role — tackling the living dead.
Honor murderous service ... former Bond girl Honor Blackman gets down to some zombie killing in new film
The ex-EastEnder, 26, stars with Honor Blackman and Alan Ford in movie Cockneys vs Zombies.
It is being shot in Sutton, South London, using local residents over 16 as extras.
The finale will be filmed at a former old people's home next week.
Local councillor Jayne McCoy joked: "It's nice to welcome new faces in town, even if they are zombies."
She had plenty of battles on her hands as a resident of Albert Square.
But at least the people Zoe Slater dealt with were alive and kicking, unlike her recent East End confrontation - whose bite is definitely much worse than their bark.
Former EastEnders star Michelle Ryan takes on an army of the living dead in her new film Cockneys Vs Zombies.
Attack of the living dead: A gun-toting Michelle Ryan gets ready to take on an army of zombies as she films scenes for her new film Cockneys Vs Zombies
In scenes shot around Canary Wharf yesterday, the actress, 26, is seen dressed head-to-toe in black, wielding two massive machine guns as she tries to shoot her way through the bloody masses.
She was shooting the scenes for the film, which is about a gang of bank robbers who come face-to-face with the zombies after a huge job.
Is anybody there? Michelle, who plays bank robber Katy in the film, walks around a deserted pub
Michelle stars as robber Katy, and she co-stars with some famous faces including LockStock star Alan Ford, former Bond Girl Honor Blackman, and Dudley Sutton, who is best known for his role as Tinker from Lovejoy.
They are all part of the gang, who break into a 350-year-old vault only to come across more than the loot when the zombies pile out from inside.
Let's 'ave it! The bank robbers shoot at the shuffling zombies as they make their getaway
Get back, you flesh-eating scumbags! Andy and Terry Macguire, played by Harry Treadaway (R) and Rasmus Hardiker (in baseball cap) shoot at the zombies as they try and escape by car
They must then try and escape with their haul while fighting their way through an infested London.
These scenes were shot in London's Docklands and show the gang trying to escape by water on a boat, while others try to flee by car.
East End hardman: No one messes with Alan Ford, not even zombies, as his character Ray Macguire shoots down several of his undead enemies
What would Lovejoy say? Michelle is joined on set by fellow castmate, veteran actor Dudley Sutton, who fires a handgun from his wheelchair
But they are soon joined by scores of hungry, shuffling undead, who want to feed on the criminals, who turn their guns on the zombies as they make their getaway.
The film also stars Harry Treadaway and Rasmus Hardiker as brothers Andy and Terry Macguire who lead the heist.
Braaaains: The shuffling bloody flesh-eaters converge on the robbers
The film will also be shot in Sutton next week, with lots of locals being asked to become zombies for the day, as the production takes over an old peoples' home for a zombie pensioner attack.
Local councillor Jayne McCoy joked: 'It's nice to welcome new faces in town, even if they are zombies.'
Docklands carnage: The crew shot the scenes in the shadow of Canary Wharf
Jamie Bell had to get a grip. There he was, the star of Billy Elliot, an unknown 15 year-old from a single-parent family in Billingham, Teesside, who beat hundreds of other wannabes to play the working class boy who loved ballet in the 2000 film. He won a Bafta; Russell Crowe was his new best friend. What was not to like? Himself, it seems.
“I lost my mind at 15,” says Bell of his hype-induced meltdown. He went back to school and managed to finish his GCSEs. But, “I’d been shown a world where there were no boundaries, where everyone gave me all the power. And I was like, ‘This is great!’ Then that was gone. But I was like, ‘Yeah, but I still want that.’ I’d lost my humble, very quiet, introverted sensibilities which I think I definitely had as a kid. And I…” Became a brat?
“Yeah, I became a little a-------,” he smiles. “And, you know, you’re a 15-year-old kid so it’s your world. And I was a b------ at 16! But still, looking back on it now, it was worrying because it is very persuasive, and you have all these grown-ups who it seems are encouraging it. And that’s unhealthy.” But unlike so many child stars before him, Bell’s spin-out was short-lived.
His mother, his manager and Stephen Daldry, the Billy Elliot director who became the mentor and father figure that Bell had never had, helped steer him right. (Bell has never had contact with his father, who left before he was born.) He chose parts in a few indie films, and turned down parts in American teen movies, “which focused on me as a kid. I wanted to still be a kid, but I came from the north east of England. I didn’t really sympathise or empathise with those kinds of characters.” And so he quietly got on with building a decent career as an actor. The rampaging ego retreated.
Since then he’s had a busy, buzzy career working with edgy(ish) directors such as Carey Fukunaga (in last month’s Jane Eyre), Kevin MacDonald (in spring’s The Eagle), David Mackenzie (in 2007’s Hallam Foe) and Thomas Vinterberg (in 2005’s Dear Wendy) as well as marquee names like Clint Eastwood (Flags of our Fathers) and Peter Jackson (King Kong). But he is still, to many cinemagoers, That Kid Who Was In Billy Elliot. So when, a couple of years ago, he was asked to call to try out for the lead in a blockbusting superhero franchise, he thought he’d be a fool to say no.
Sandrine Rottier
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Billy Elliot turns psycho
TEN years ago he was wearing tights and enchanting the nation as ballet boy Billy Elliot.
But Jamie Bell grew up pretty scary, if our exclusive clip from the thriller Retreat is anything to go by.
Grieving couple Kate and Martin – Thandie Newton and Cillian Murphy – have escaped to a cottage on a remote Scottish island to repair their marriage after the stillbirth of their first child.
Jamie plays Jack, an injured stranger washed up on the shore dressed in military fatigues and clutching a gun.
In our clip, he begins barricading them into the house after convincing them a deadl airborne virus is sweeping Europe.
As they have no means of communication with the outside world, it's impossible to check his apocalyptic stories.
Tiny dancer ... Jamie as Billy Elliot
And Jack's increasingly aggressive behaviour puts the couple's fragile relationship under further strain.
RETREAT was my first film today at Fantastic Fest, and I thought Jamie Bell's performance was inspired. Muldoon does a lot of our transcribing work here at AICN, and he came out of the same screening. Here are his thoughts on RETREAT!
Muldoon Reviews RETREAT
So it’s day three of Fantastic Fest and so far my mind is blown. I’ve seen movie after movie of crazy goodness with Korean flicks like HAUNTERS and THE YELLOW SEA topping my faves up until now.
I just caught first time director Carl Tibbetts’ thriller RETREAT. As always, I rarely read synopses for the films playing the fest, I just pick a title and sit in the theater for some sort of a surprise. I wasn’t expecting where this film was going during the first act and quite honestly I still wasn’t sure where it was going halfway in and I mean that as an incredible compliment to the filmmakers. On that note, if you’re looking for a review that gives away practically any kind of spoiler or walks you through the film, this isn’t it.
Scanning the IMDB page of the film I see it’s got five out of 10 stars at the moment and that blows my mind. I’d toss eight or a seven easy, so fair warning I might be in some sort of a minority.
The film starts out with Martin [Cillian Murphy] and Kate [Thandie Newton] getting dropped off at a cabin on an island for time away from the city. As they walk to their cottage, we are treated with long shot after long shot displaying how incredibly beautiful this island is. Once they arrive at their cottage and get settled in, it quickly becomes obvious something’s up with the two and their retreat is a last ditch effort to possibly save their marriage. I say “obvious,” because not sharing a bed to sleep and having your wife confiding in her computer rather than in you, the husband, well that’s never a good sign. The beginning of the film reminds me of walking in on a couple after they’ve been screaming at each other.
Without giving much more of a play by play, an injured man [Jamie Bell] appears and the two take him in. He presents them with a problem and bam, the story kicks off and you are instantly tossed into a mindfuck of “Is this guy for real? No… Yeah, well maybe” and maintains that level of confusion until the very end. All of a sudden those beautiful long shots from earlier are replaced with tight, semi-claustrophobic mediums and close ups, like you’re slowly being choked, a sign of a damn good thriller, I think. The film is moody, tense, and gets your heart racing and your brain spinning.
To cut to the chase, RETREAT is a terrific film full of incredible performances tied together with damn good pacing and a thick atmosphere all pretty much set in the confines of a cottage. If you are at all a fan of films like BUG, THE TENANT, or ROSEMARY’S BABY, then this film is for you.
