Daniel Craig tells of filming new Knives Out movie in Greece during lockdown at London Film Festival
Whodunnit movie Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery has closed this year’s London Film Festival with stars telling Sky News how pleased they are the industry is back in full swing following the pandemic.
The follow-up to the 2019 hit Knives Out sees Daniel Craig reprising his role as detective Benoit Blanc.
“It’s just wonderful to be here at the London Film Festival on the closing night,” the Bond star told Sky News.
“Especially with the standard of film this year, which has been so amazing – to be in that number is just exceptional.”
The rest of Glass Onion’s ensemble cast, including Edward Norton, Kate Hudson and Janelle Monae are new to the franchise.
The movie was shot partly in Greece during the pandemic, which meant the cast grew close as they were forced to spend time together.
“I mean, it was an amazing experience,” Craig said.
“We were under lockdown, so we were kind of restricted in our movements so we couldn’t really go very many places.
“It was about 150 degrees in the shade, but, you know, those are high class problems.”
Janelle Monae is new to the franchise
Kate Hudson, who plays a former supermodel turned designer, told Sky News the cast got on brilliantly.
“It was good fun, with a lot of hard work in between, you know?” she said.
“But we were a good work-hard, play-hard cast, so we were very well suited for each other, we had really good times.
“It was COVID, so it kind of forced us to have to play with each other for three months, so we ended up getting really close and it was really fun.”
The film is screening in London following its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Both are fully in-person events this year, and Hudson says she’s “more than delighted” about that.
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“It feels like we’ve been, if you’re in the industry, it’s like we’ve been starved for it,” she said.
“It’s so important to celebrate film and all of the great artists that have really worked their entire lives to be able to bring art to people through cinema.
“And so these festivals are… I just love them, I love being a part of them and it’s nice for everybody to be back in the theatre.”
Writer and director Rian Johnson also brought the first Knives Out to the London Film Festival three years ago.
He told Sky News that assembling the cast for the follow-up wasn’t easy on paper, but worked out very well.
“I feel so incredibly lucky this gang of actors signed on board for this – I mean everyone’s so busy these days, it’s always hard getting a group of people to commit to coming out to do something,” Johnson explained.
“But if you had told me when I started writing the group that we would get, I would get very nervous and probably not be able to finish writing.
“But I mean, everybody – the fact that we got to work with Kathryn Hahn, Edward Norton, Kate Hudson, Janelle Monae, it’s absolutely kind of a director’s dream, made my job very easy.”
Kate Hudson plays a former supermodel turned designer
With early reviews for the film very positive, attention now turns to the third.
In 2021, Netflix paid for two Knives Out sequels in a deal reported to be worth almost £400m.
And Johnson says he and Craig are very happy to keep going – admitting they have a great deal of fun on set.
“There is a lot of giggling that happens between us when we’re shooting, I mean, that’s the whole reason we’re here,” he said.
“That’s the real reason we’re keeping making these things is because on the first one we had so much fun together and just got along so well, and on this one it felt like it was maybe even more fun.
“So we’ll see – as long as these keep being fun and as long as we feel like we can find a different thing to do each time to keep surprising the audience and keep it fresh, we’ll keep making these.”
Audiences in the UK will have to wait a little longer for Glass Onion, though – it’s not out in cinemas here until November, and will be on Netflix the following month.
Saoirse Ronan has become one of the Academy Awards’ anomalies after being nominated four times without taking home a statuette.
The American-born Irish star received her first Oscars nod at the age of just 13, when she featured in the best supporting actress category for her role in Atonement.
Since then, despite being shortlisted three times for best actress for Brooklyn, Lady Bird and Little Women, she has never won.
Now, the 30-year-old is set to compete in both the lead and supporting actress categories at the 2025 awards for her new films The Outrun and Steve McQueen’s Blitz.
Saoirse Ronan stars in The Outrun. Pic: StudioCanal UK
If she secures one or both nominations, she would become the youngest actor to receive five, or six, nods.
Directed by Nora Fingscheidt, The Outrun, which is inspired by the life of writer Amy Liptrot, follows a Scottish woman struggling with alcoholism while living in fast-paced London.
In a bid to maintain her sobriety, she returns home to Orkney and finds herself in the process.
“Nora really wanted us to have our input in terms of who these characters were and situations that we would find them in”, Ronan told Sky News.
“We had a script that was written and the structure of it was there, but we were sort of able to fill in the gaps a little bit.”
The Outrun. Pic: StudioCanal UK
The Scottish drama marks the first time Ronan has worked as a producer on a project and she says she took a lot from the experience.
She said: “There is a lot going on behind the scenes that actors are protected from, and sometimes I think it would be valuable for an actor to know the drama that exists when they’re not around.
“I think it might make people behave a little bit better and to know that it is sort of like a domino effect when there’s one thing that’s out of place, it really will affect everything else by you not getting on to a call at a certain time.”
The Outrun. Pic: StudioCanal UK
She said it gave her a new appreciation for the craft.
“It’s very difficult to get an independent movie made and to try and source the money needed to just even pay people is difficult sometimes.
“So, yes, it’s just having an awareness of and the graft involved and that has definitely made me appreciate the movies that I’m on so much more where I am just an actor and I don’t have to worry about any of that stuff at all.”
The film also stars The Lazarus Project’s Paapa Essiedu as her boyfriend Daynin.
Battling with the person she has become, her character Rona returns to the Orkney Islands to try to reconnect with nature.
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The Oscar nominee said sea swimming at a remote location was therapeutic for the cast and crew.
“We finished [shooting] on Papa Westray, where we had to have a micro crew. There’s 90 inhabitants on the whole island.
“We stayed in people’s homes because there’s no hotels or anything like that. We ate together every night. We walked to work like it was a very stripped back experience in terms of filmmaking.
“And I think that was sort of felt like art imitating life a little bit after all the chaos of the beginning of the shoot. To have that at the end was wonderful.”
The Outrun is in cinemas now.
Pop star Lana Del Rey has married her alligator tour guide partner in Louisiana, according to reports.
The singer, 39, and Jeremy Dufrene, 49, are said to have obtained a marriage licence in Lafourche parish on Monday and had their wedding three days later.
Footage obtained by the Daily Mail appears to show Del Rey, whose real name is Elizabeth Woodridge Grant, wearing a white dress where Mr Dufrene works as a tour guide in Des Allemandes, south of New Orleans.
Del Rey has not commented on the reported wedding.
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She met Mr Dufrene in 2019, posting pictures of her on one of his tours with the caption: “Jeremy lemme be captain at Arthur’s Air Boat Tours x.”
Arthur’s Air Boat Tours gives guided tours through the local swamps, where its website says visitors are likely to see “300 species of birds” and “alligators up close and personal”.
Mr Dufrene’s profile page says he previously worked seven days a week at a chemical plant – when he would “shrimp on vacation days”.
“After a little convincing by his family, he got his captain’s licence and started running tours,” it adds.
“Jeremy’s a great airboat captain and loves interacting with wildlife & customers.”
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The couple were pictured together at Reading and Leeds festival this summer where Del Rey headlined.
She previously dated Scottish singer Barrie-James O’Neill for three years and was last linked to a police officer called Sean Larkin.
Entertainment
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs: Woman accuses rapper of further sexual assault allegations in new lawsuit
Sean “Diddy” Combs was hit with further sexual assault allegations after a woman filed a lawsuit in New York.
In the fresh civil case, the woman – identified by the pseudonym Jane Doe – claims she was repeatedly raped and drugged at the music mogul’s homes and became pregnant after one of the encounters.
It follows a series of similar legal cases brought by women against Combs, 54, who was arrested at a hotel in New York last week on sex trafficking, drug possession and firearms offences.
The latest lawsuit was filed on Friday against Combs, his companies and several associates, and seeks undisclosed damages for physical injuries, severe emotional distress, humiliation, anxiety and other harm.
The woman claims she met Combs abroad in 2020 and that the assaults and harassment continued through to July this year.
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She says she was often coerced and harassed into travelling to Combs’ homes in New York, Los Angeles and Miami and other cities, and during every visit the rapper would make her “perform a show” for him.
In one encounter alleged to have taken place in July 2022, the woman claims she blacked out after being forced to take drugs that included ketamine.
She later allegedly took a pregnancy test and told Combs it was positive. She said an associate of the music producer repeatedly demanded her to get an abortion. The lawsuit states she had a miscarriage.
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Diddy ‘didn’t do these things’ – lawyer
The woman, who is being represented by lawyers Marie Napoli and Joseph Ciaccio, also alleges Combs and his associates tracked her location and monitored her conversations.
She claims Combs discouraged her from working and gave her an “allowance” that he used to control her.
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“No one is above the law. Fame and wealth do not protect Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs from serious allegations of sex trafficking and abuse,” Ms Napoli said in a statement.
Combs has been facing civil allegations including rape, sexual assault, and forced drugging since November 2023.
He has pleaded not guilty to racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking but remains jailed, having been denied bail. His attorney said he is innocent and will fight to clear his name.
A lawyer for Combs did not respond to the allegations made in Friday’s lawsuit when contacted by the Associated Press news agency.
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