BAZ BAMIGBOYE: Oscar winners Kate Winslet and Diane Keaton are set to star alongside each other for the first time in Nothing Like A Dame

Oscar winners Kate Winslet and Diane Keaton are to star alongside each other for the first time.

They have been brought together by director Roger Michell, hot on the heels of the success of his acclaimed Nothing Like A Dame documentary (featuring Eileen Atkins, Judi Dench, Joan Plowright and Maggie Smith) and the transfer of Nina Raine’s gripping play Consent (which he directs) from the National to the West End’s Harold Pinter Theatre.

Michell has paired Keaton and Winslet as mother and daughter in a family drama called Blackbird (nothing whatsoever to do, by the way, with David Harrower’s dark play of the same name).

Oscar winners Kate Winslet and Diane Keaton are to star alongside each other for the first time

The film will shoot in the UK from September, though the story is set in the United States.

Michell has history with Keaton, having worked with her, Rachel McAdams and Harrison Ford on Morning Glory — a film set in the world of American breakfast TV which I have a soft spot for, despite the fact it’s very soppy.

I’m also a fan of Notting Hill, which Michell made back in 1999 with Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts, both on top form. It’s currently on Delta Air Lines’ in-flight movie list and I’ve found myself watching it, idly, a few times over the past year, and it stands up superbly.

So let’s see what kind of performances he can garner from Winslet and Keaton, who won Oscars for The Reader and Annie Hall, respectively.

Winslet was sublime in the woefully neglected Woody Allen film Wonder Wheel. But there will be zero neglect when it comes to Avatar 2, which reunites Winslet with Titanic director James Cameron and is out late in 2020.

I’m wondering aloud here, but could Winslet find herself appearing in Danny Boyle’s Bond 25? The pair worked together on Steve Jobs and I know they’re keen to repeat the experience.

You never know!

 

Watch out for...

Mohammad Amiri, Trevor Fox, Ammar Haj Ahmad, Alex Lawther, Jo McInnes, John Pfumojena, Dominic Rowan, Rachel Redford and Ben Turner who are part of the scorching ensemble of Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson’s play The Jungle — about the refugee and migrant camp at Calais, which has transferred from the Young Vic to the Playhouse Theatre. Designer Miriam Buether has transformed the Playhouse stalls into a replica of parts of the Calais camp, and divided it into regions. For instance I sat in ‘Egypt’. And the circle area (which has pretty good views) is known as the ‘White Cliffs’ (of Dover). It’s a brilliant piece of theatre and I was pleased to be on the judging panel that voted it Play Of The Year in The South Bank Sky Arts Awards. The production will move to St Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn from December 4. 

Kelli O’Hara, who stars as the ‘schoolteacher’ in The King And I at the London Palladium. I’ve been raving about Ms O’Hara for years so I’m thrilled she has finally made her London debut and won fulsome praise from the likes of Andrew Lloyd Webber — and my wife!

Lloyd Webber was sitting behind me on Tuesday and I could hear his gasps of ‘fabulous’ and ‘fantastic’ whenever O’Hara sang. He told me that she’s the ‘best interpreter’ of the Rodgers and Hammerstein songbook he’s heard, a point echoed by producer Howard Panter, who helped coax O’Hara over here with director Bartlett Sher and Ken Watanabe (who’s every inch a king). ‘Kelli has great control and she really understands what she’s singing,’ Panter told me. ‘Every thought is true, and every thought is meant, and placed in a story.’ It feels like a once in a lifetime treat to see O’Hara, although I hope she’ll return — and often. The production will go on a UK tour next year and also head overseas to Tokyo, Osaka, Taiwan, Korea, Australia and European cities. 

Laura Pitt-Pulford, Louis Maskell, Mark Meadows and Nicola Sloane, who were in the musical Flowers For Mrs Harris when it played in Sheffield. They have been recruited by director Daniel Evans to recreate their parts when the show, by Rachel Wagstaff and Richard Taylor, runs at Chichester Festival Theatre from September 8. They will join Clare Burt (in the title role she created in Sheffield) and Joanna Riding, as her best friend. The show is based on the Paul Gallico novella about a charlady who adores fashion. Gary Wilmot also stars. 

 

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