"Howards End" Premieres, "Ladies In Black" Begins Filming

"Howards End" premiered today in the UK. The Starz/BBC 4-part mini-series will air in the U.S. early next year. The trailer for the mini-series dropped a few days ago and contains a brief line of dialogue from Julia Ormond, playing a scene with series star Hayley Atwell.

The BBC website contains more footage from the adaptation of E.M. Forster's classic novel.

II. Julia will be appear in a new Australian film called "Ladies in Black." It is based on a bestselling novel by Madeleine St John. IMDB describes the film as follows:

"Ladies in Black is set in Sydney in the summer of 1959, against the backdrop of Australia's cultural awakening, breakdown of class structures, and liberation of women. It tells the coming-of-age story of suburban schoolgirl Lisa, who while waiting for her final high school exam results with dreams of going to the University of Sydney, takes a summer job at a large department store. Here she works side-by-side with a group of saleswomen who open her eyes to a world beyond her sheltered existence, and foster her metamorphosis."

According to Variety:

"Ormond will play a Slovenian emigre who’s the manager of the high-fashion floor. Other cast members include Rachael Taylor as Fay Baines, Alison McGirr, Vincent Perez, Ryan Corr, Susie Porter, and Shane Jacobson."

III. True Sioux Hope Foundation, an organization dedicated to "assisting the Oglala Lakota Sioux Native Americans from the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota," recently held its second annual True Sioux Hope Gala. The non-profit "reached out to donors including Donna and Dick Pickup, Tim and Stephanie Busch, Linda and Burton Young, Leroy and Kelly Breinholt, Cheryl and John Joliffe, Marilyn Robinson and Julia Ormond to build local interest and bring in financial backing."

Learn more from the LA Times article below:

http://www.latimes.com/socal/daily-pilot/opinion/tn-dpt-et-the-crowd-20171012-story.html

IV. Are you still disappointed that Lifetime cancelled "The Witches of East End" on a cliffhanger? This may be the consolations you're looking for:

"On Tuesday, Summer on East End: Triple Moon, the young adult spinoff novel series by Witches of East End author Melissa de la Cruz, arrives in bookstores, and with it comes “Mirror Souls,” a short story conclusion to the TV series."

This story is an old one at this point but I missed it the first time around. If you missed it, too, and are a fan of the tv series, pick up the book!

V. "Remember," the sci-fi thriller starring Peter Dinklage, Martin Donovan, Anton Yelchin and Julia Ormond will become available on blu-ray on November 28th. Julia is all over the trailer (yay!!!). This one looks like it could be really good.

"The Dreaming Child" - Unproduced Julia Ormond/Harold Pinter Project Now a BBC Radio Drama

Last year Julia was on The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson where she briefly discussed an unproduced film project she had worked on with the late Nobel Prize-winning playwright Harold Pinter. That 1997 screenplay, based on Karen Blixen's (also known by her pseudonym Isak Dinesen) short story The Dreaming Child is now a BBC radio drama starring Game of Throne's Leslie Rose (where she played Ygritte, the red-haired wilding). Julia does not appear to have any connection with this current adaptation. It will premiere on Saturday, March 7th on BBC Radio 4 (link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b054gxpb )

I. According to the Daily Mail (link:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2963444/Now-aPinter-pause-New-plays-broadcast-seven-years-died.html ):

"Pinter’s adaptation of The Dreaming Child is set in Bristol in 1868 and tells the story of childless couple Emily and Tom Carter and their decision to adopt a boy from the slums. But happiness eludes the couple because Emily continues to be haunted by her passionate fling with a young soldier who was killed at sea.

It will be narrated by Anne Reid, who plays Celia in the Bafta-winning Last Tango In Halifax, and stars Rose Leslie.

Pinter was originally commissioned to write the screenplay by Hollywood star Julia Ormond, who at the time had signed a production deal with 20th Century Fox. She was delighted with Pinter’s work but the project collapsed when she insisted on directing the film as well as producing it. Pinter later commented: ‘It was this that brought the project to its knees. The money-men simply wouldn’t give her the chance.’

In his official biography of the playwright, critic Michael Billington said the screenplay for The Dreaming Child compared favourably with Pinter’s very best work."

Harold Pinter's original screenplay was published in the third volume of his "Collected Screenplays" (Farber & Farber, 2000). HaroldPinter.org has a quote from Julia in the Evening Standard from October 1997, "Working with him is the highlight of my career. I think he has done a brilliant script and I hope we will get the green light soon." (Link: http://www.haroldpinter.org/films/films_dreamingchild.shtml )

II. On January 16th Julia posted a link on her verified twitter account to Instagram page. Here's hoping we'll see more posts from her soon. (Link: https://instagram.com/julia.ormond/ )