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Fans of action movie icon Jason Statham can revisit his heist movie that's nearly two decades old. At the start of next month, the film is getting a new streaming home.

Statham's The Bank Job is set to start streaming on Max on Feb. 1. Originally released in 2008, the heist thriller is based on the true story of the infamous 1971 burglary known as the "Baker Street robbery." The film earned respectable reviews, scored at 80% on Rotten Tomatoes. It made over $66 million worldwide at the box office against a budget of $20 million.

Related David Ayer May Have Quietly Confirmed More Jason Statham Collabs After Upcoming Beekeeper Replacement

David Ayer may be hinting at more collaborations with The Beekeeper star Jason Statham after their next film together.

Roger Donaldson directed The Bank Job, which was written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais. Statham stars in the lead role, with the film's other actors including Saffron Burrows,...

Britain's television landscape has often been linked with gritty characters, compelling storylines, and complex dramas, with no genre embodying those traits quite like an iconic British spy series. The British fiction's fascination with spies and espionage can be traced back to Ian Fleming's iconic James Bond character from 1953, which garnered worldwide attention and acclaim. Though other countries produce quality works in the genre, the British versions tend to have a biting dialogue mixed with intricate, layered narratives that create some of the most intense, thrilling shows of all time.

Uniquely British spy series from older generations, such as Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, shows the complexity of the genre and the underlying tension and psychological pressures that agents must endure on their missions. Modern series like the beloved Killing Eve show a different layer to the genre, with a more quirky and comical tone that is still punctuated with moments...

Jason Statham's popular heist movie The Bank Job has a brilliant yet unsuspecting cameo. The Bank Job remains one of Jason Statham's highest-rated movies of his illustrious film career with a Rotten Tomatoes critic score of 80% and an equally impressive audience score of 74%. Released in 2008, The Bank Job sees Statham's Terry Leather as the protagonist, an ordinary car dealer in London who gets the opportunity of a lifetime to steal a massive fortune from an unalarmed bank.

The Bank Job was directed by Roger Donaldson and based on a screenplay by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais (Across the Universe). The film earned a worldwide box office total of $61.1 million against a production budget of $20 million and is considered one of the most notable heist movies of the 21st century. Statham starred in Snatch (2000), The Transporter (2002), The Italian Job (2003), and Crank (2006) before starring in The Bank Job.

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Is Bad Boys II Michael Bay’s best-worst movie? Is it the most entertaining, so-bad-its-good mainstream action movie ever made?

If the definition of insanity is repeating the same thing and expecting different results, then one could argue Michael Bay is downright certifiable. After all, who announces their directorial debut with a movie as bold and brash as Bad Boys and proceeds to repeat, nay, magnify the same screenwriting mistakes in the critically panned sequel Bad Boys II? Then again, does it even matter? Despite being released eight years after the original, Bad Boys II may have been eviscerated by critics but proved to be bulletproof among the moviegoing masses. Instead of taking precise measures to tighten the story and bolster the witty banter between Miami Narcotics officers Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett, Bay doubled down on the explosive action set-pieces and visceral chase sequences. The bet paid off so...

In Jay Roach's 1997 James Bond spoof "Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery," the film's villain, Dr. Evil (Mike Myers), aims to murder off his arch-nemesis by dropping him into a tank full of man-eating sharks. In a supervillainous twist, the sharks will be equipped with laser beams affixed to their heads. Dr. Evil says he likes his pets to have a well-cooked meal before eating. He then cackles maniacally. A lieutenant of his, however, informs Dr. Evil that buying sharks equipped with lasers is immensely difficult and that the tank is, instead, filled with flesh-eating sea bass. Dr. Evil isn't thrilled. "You know, I have one simple request," Dr. Evil says, "and that is to have sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads!"

One cannot say if there's a direct connection to the above scene and a James Bond movie that Sean Connery once wrote, but there are a few uncanny similarities.

Arnold Schwarzenegger still regrets losing a blockbuster film to Nicolas Cage in 1996. Cage starred alongside Sean Connery in the action thriller film, The Rock. The producers of the film, Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson, initially approached Schwarzenegger for the role of FBI chemical weapons specialist Stanley Godspeed. However, they came with a half-baked script to meet with the Predator star, who asked them to come back when they were completely done with the script.

The Terminator star Arnold Schwarzenegger lost one role to Nicolas Cage that he regrets even today

The film received critical acclaim and was even nominated for an Academy Award in the category of Best Sound. Schwarzenegger admitted that he missed out on a great opportunity but still believed that a completed script is crucial to commit to a role.

Nicolas Cage Accepted A Hit Movie Role That Arnold Schwarzenegger Turned Down Nicolas Cage appeared alongside Sean...

Across the Universe is an amazing collection of music from The Beatles, as it uses more than 30 of their songs, to tell the love story between Jude (Jim Sturgess) and Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood), while also talking about New York in the '60s, the Vietnam War, and paying homage other unique musicians of the era, with Janis Joplin-like Sadie (Dan Fuchs), and Jimmy Hendrix-inspired Jojo (Martin Luther); making it a one-of-a-kind movie. Director Julie Taymor had been known for her Broadway adaptation of The Lion King before directing Titus and Frida, and she brought that same magical realism and imagination to this film, making it a musical like no other.

There have been many movies that have used some of the songs of the Fab Four, even successfully, but this movie is all Beatles songs, all the time (there might be less spoken dialogue here than in...

Helping you stay sane while staying safe… featuring Leonard Maltin, Dave Anthony, Miguel Arteta, John Landis, and Blaire Bercy from the Hollywood Food Coalition.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Plague (1979)

Target Earth (1954)

The Left Hand of God (1955)

A Lost Lady (1934)

Enough Said (2013)

Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941)

Mr. Smith Goes To Washington (1939)

Heaven Can Wait (1978)

Down to Earth (2001)

Down To Earth (1947)

The Commitments (1991)

Once (2007)

Election (1999)

About Schmidt (2002)

Sideways (2004)

Nebraska (2013)

The Man in the Moon (1991)

The 39 Steps (1935)

Casablanca (1942)

The Lady Vanishes (1938)

The Night Walker (1964)

Chuck and Buck (2000)

Cedar Rapids (2011)

Beatriz at Dinner (2017)

Duck Butter (2018)

The Good Girl (2002)

The Big Heat (1953)

Human Desire (1954)

Slightly French (1949)

Week-End with Father (1951)

Experiment In Terror (1962)

They Shoot Horses Don’t They? (1969)

Ray’s Male Heterosexual Dance Hall (1987)

Airport (1970)

Earthquake (1974)

Drive a Crooked Road (1954)

Pushover (1954)

Waves (2019)

Krisha (2015)

The Oblong Box (1969)

80,000 Suspects (1963)

Panic In The Streets (1950)

It Comes At Night (2017)

Children of Men (2006)

The Road (2009)

You Were Never Really Here...

The actor’s ruined handsomeness was perfect for his portrayal of a psychopathically violent gangster in this classic 1971 thriller

Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais are renowned for small-screen comic masterpieces such as Porridge and The Likely Lads, but in 1971 they scripted the deadly serious and horribly gripping London crime picture Villain, now rereleased on Blu-ray. It’s an extremely lairy and tasty piece of work in which Richard Burton gave one of his best, most lip-smackingly gruesome performances: this film’s easily as good as the far better known Get Carter with Michael Caine, released that same year.

Villain is based on the novel The Burden of Proof from pulp author James Barlow, reportedly an inspiration for Jake Arnott’s The Long Firm. Producer Elliot Krasner had originally commissioned a treatment from Hollywood actor-writer Al Lettieri, (who played the drug lord Virgil Sollozzo in The Godfather), but Clement and...

Leaning into the dog days of summer, when everything is languid and everyone is just waiting for Labor Day, Netflix’s August movie slate is light on excitement and heavy on familiar pleasures — the kind of stuff that you’ve probably seen a million times before, and can only watch while lying down across the entire couch.

Major new additions are few and far between, with the breakout Sundance documentary “American Factory” being the streaming giant’s biggest exclusive release of the month. That essential new film is joined by a hodgepodge of cable standards that ranges from Nancy Meyers’ most beloved rom-com to Quentin Tarantino’s most human story; “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” might borrow a few tricks from the likes of “Inglourious Basterds,” but its tender side harkens all the way back to the touching story of “Jackie Brown.”

Here are the seven best movies new...

Now that Daniel Day-Lewis has entered retirement from acting, it might be time to give Jason Statham his due. Over the course of the last two decades, the bullet-shaped Brit has been a much-needed shot in the arm for action cinema, electrifying the genre with his unique blend of swagger and charisma. It’s fun to watch him drive a car really fast, it’s fun to watch him shoot bad guys with one arm while holding a baby with the other, and it’s really fun to watch him do both of those things in the same movie. What the 51-year-old star lacks in versatility, he more than makes up for in self-assurance — no one else on his level is as comfortable in who he is, and what he can do. We suspect that’s a lesson a giant shark is about to learn the hard way.

With “The Meg...

Julie Taymor wasn’t happy with Sony’s 2007 release of her biggest-budget film to date, the $45-million “Across the Universe.” An original movie musical, sung live long before “Les Miserables” or “La La Land,” her film was a memorably inventive and visually rich narrative comprised of mini-music videos, from multiple Salma Hayeks dancing in a vets’ hospital in “Happiness is a Warm Gun” to Bono’s Merry Prankster singing “I Am the Walrus” at a psychedelic ’60s cocktail party.

However, it received love-hate reviews and the box office topped out at a disappointing $24.3 million domestic, partly because Taymor delivered a more sophisticated, diverse, and densely political musical than Revolution Studios’ Joe Roth and Sony had in mind. Now, Sony has agreed to something of a make-good, booking a sparkling 4K restoration via Fathom Events across the country on three nights, July 29 – August 1. It’s worth checking out on the big screen.

Julie Taymor wasn’t happy with Sony’s 2007 release of her biggest-budget film to date, the $45-million “Across the Universe.” An original movie musical, sung live long before “Les Miserables” or “La La Land,” her film was a memorably inventive and visually rich narrative comprised of mini-music videos, from multiple Salma Hayeks dancing in a vets’ hospital in “Happiness is a Warm Gun” to Bono’s Merry Prankster singing “I Am the Walrus” at a psychedelic ’60s cocktail party.

However, it received love-hate reviews and the box office topped out at a disappointing $24.3 million domestic, partly because Taymor delivered a more sophisticated, diverse, and densely political musical than Revolution Studios’ Joe Roth and Sony had in mind. Now, Sony has agreed to something of a make-good, booking a sparkling 4K restoration via Fathom Events across the country on three nights, July 29 – August 1. It’s worth checking out on the big screen.

Films from students of Ringling College of Art and Design, University of the West of England and New York University won at this year’s British Academy of Film and Television Student Film Awards competition, a key component of the organization’s mission to foster new talent.

At a ceremony Friday in L.A.’s Theatre at Ace Hotel, a special jury prize was also given to National Film and Television School student Lucia Bulgheroni for her film “Inanimate.” The Laika award for animated film went to Ringling’s Beth David and Esteban Bravo for “In a Heartbeat,” while Lindsey Parietti of the University of the West of England took the documentary trophy and NYU’s Kevin Wilson Jr. won the prize for “My Nephew Emmett.”

With the international expansion of the competition, 469 entries were accepted from 35 countries from Argentina to China and Switzerland to Kenya. Global Student Accommodation Group...

Dear White People creator Justin Simien is among the jurors for the 2018 BAFTA Student Film Awards.

Director Jon Turteltaub and Sundance director of programming Kim Yutani will also serves as jurors, along with Jen McGowan, Dick Clement, Ian Lafrenais and Amy Adrion.

The BAFTA Student Film Awards are meant to identify up-and-coming young filmmaking talent from a wide range of backgrounds. Submissions came from film schools in 35 countries across the world, from which nine finalists have been chosen.

Winners across the three categories — live action, animation and documentary — as well as a special jury prize will ...

Dear White People creator Justin Simien is among the jurors for the 2018 BAFTA Student Film Awards.

Director Jon Turteltaub and Sundance director of programming Kim Yutani will also serves as jurors, along with Jen McGowan, Dick Clement, Ian Lafrenais and Amy Adrion.

The BAFTA Student Film Awards are meant to identify up-and-coming young filmmaking talent from a wide range of backgrounds. Submissions came from film schools in 35 countries across the world, from which nine finalists have been chosen.

Winners across the three categories — live action, animation and documentary — as well as a special jury prize will ...

MaryAnn’s quick take… A brilliantly thrilling look back at the flowering of creativity and freethinking spirit of 1960s London, through the thoroughly charming perspective of Michael Caine. I’m “biast” (pro): nothing

I’m “biast” (con): nothing

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto) women’s participation in this film

(learn more about this)

I have never felt sorry to have missed the 1960s (I didn’t come along until the final few months of that decade) until I saw the brilliantly thrilling documentary My Generation last year at London Film Festival. Now it’s available on DVD and streaming (in the UK), so everyone can — and should — check out its can’t-miss look at how the burgeoning youth culture of that decade, particularly the hugely influential flowering of it that was centered in London, changed the world forever.

What makes this film stand out...

Few latecomer ’60s spy movies were big successes. This amusing Brit effort sank without a trace, perhaps taking with it the career of the talented Tom Courtenay as a leading man. The comic tale pits an underachieving, cheeky London lad against an intelligence conspiracy that wouldn’t be doing anybody much harm — if they didn’t insist on murdering people.

Otley

Blu-ray

Powerhouse Indicator (UK)

1969 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 92 min. / Available at The Ph page / Street Date March 19, 2018 / £15.99

Starring: Tom Courtenay, Romy Schneider, Alan Badel, James Villiers, Leonard Rossiter, James Bolam, Fiona Lewis, Freddie Jones, James Cossins, James Maxwell, Edward Hardwicke, Ronald Lacey, Phyllida Law, Geoffrey Bayldon, Frank Middlemass.

Cinematography: Austin Dempster

Film Editor: Richard Best

Art Direction: Carmen Dillon

Original Music: Stanley Myers

Written by Dick Clement, Ian la Frenais from a book by Martin Waddell

Produced by Bruce Cohn Curtis, Carl Foreman

Directed by Dick Clement

The British film...

Twiggy, Joan Collins and Paul McCartney reminisce with the Alfie actor about a decade of smiley hippies and grumpy people in bowler hats

The enduring mystery of what Michael Caine is thinking and feeling remains intact during his watchable, if somewhat exasperating docu-reminiscence of 1960s swinging London. It certainly doesn’t say anything revealing or new about the man itself. With many images of smiley hippies and apoplectic people in bowler hats, the film is narrated by Caine in his inimitably measured and inscrutably deadpan style: the script is evidently the work of Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais whose 60s TV classic The Likely Lads sadly goes unmentioned.

David Bailey, Joan Collins, Sandie Shaw, Twiggy and Paul McCartney are interviewed here by Caine, though oddly and disappointingly off camera, their voices the accompaniment to old footage. Caine has said that he didn’t want the audience distracted by these faces all looking shockingly older.

Kirsten Howard Feb 23, 2018

The BBC is giving its Porridge sequel series the boot...

Sad news for fans of the Beeb's recently-revived Porridge, we're afraid - the series won't be back for more banged-up-(not)-abroad hijinx, as it's been nixed after just one series.

The show featured Kevin Bishop as Nigel, the cyber crime-committing grandson of Ronnie Barker's character Norman Fletcher, alongside Mark Bonnar, Dominic Coleman, Dave Hill, Harman Singh, Jason Barnett and Ricky Grover.

The BBC first floated the project as a pilot in its Landmark Comedy Season a couple of years ago. The new version of the classic sitcom was well received, and so 6 episodes were ordered and plonked in a Friday night slot. It performed fine there for a spell, but it seems that either the ratings, or general interest in keeping Ian La Frenais and Dick Clement's new Porridge alive, must have started deteriorating rather quickly.

Author: Zehra Phelan

Lionsgate has released the first look trailer and poster from Michael Caine’s documentary, My Generation.

Related: Always in Style – The Forgotten Roles of Michael Caine

British film icon Michael Caine narrates and stars in ‘My Generation’, the vivid and inspiring story of his personal journey through 1960s London. Based on personal accounts and stunning archive footage this feature-length documentary film sees Caine travel back in time to talk to The Beatles, Twiggy, David Bailey, Mary Quant, The Rolling Stones, David Hockney and other star names.

The film has been painstakingly assembled over the last six years by Caine working with Producer Simon Fuller, Writers Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais and Director David Batty to tell the story of the birth of pop culture in London, through the eyes of the young Michael Caine: “For the first time in history the young working class stood up for ourselves and said,...

When you have Michael Caine on board as the face and primary voice of your documentary collage of the pop-cultural explosion of London in the 1960s, plus entrepreneurial mogul Simon Fuller as lead producer, you get great access — to talent, to music, to a dizzying trove of fabulous photographic and filmed archival material. But all that appears to have flummoxed rather than helped director David Batty and writers Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais in making the necessary choices to conquer their wealth of material and mold it into a satisfying shape.

For anyone interested in the movies, music,...

Each month, the fine folks at FilmStruck and the Criterion Collection spend countless hours crafting their channels to highlight the many different types of films that they have in their streaming library. This August will feature an exciting assortment of films, as noted below.

To sign up for a free two-week trial here.

Tuesday, August 1

Tuesday’s Short + Feature: These Boots and Mystery Train

Music is at the heart of this program, which pairs a zany music video by Finnish master Aki Kaurismäki with a tune-filled career highlight from American independent-film pioneer Jim Jarmusch. In the 1993 These Boots, Kaurismäki’s band of pompadoured “Finnish Elvis” rockers, the Leningrad Cowboys, cover a Nancy Sinatra classic in their signature deadpan style. It’s the perfect prelude to Jarmusch’s 1989 Mystery Train, a homage to the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll and the musical legacy of Memphis, featuring appearances by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and Joe Strummer.

The Beeb is amping up the laughs. The BBC has commissioned three new comedy TV programs. BBC One has ordered the Porridge TV show revival from creators Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais. The original prison-set series, starring Ronnie Barker and Richard Beckinsale, ran on BBC One from 1974 to 1977. The Porridge reboot stars Kevin Bishop as Nigel ‘Fletch’ Fletcher, grandson of Barker’s iconic Norman Stanley Fletcher.BBC Two ordered the Motherland TV series, written by Graham Linehan and Sharon Horgan, Helen Linehan, and Holly Walsh, the show features the the trials and traumas of motherhood. The pilot, which aired as part of The BBC's "Landmark Sitcom Season," starred Anna Maxwell Martin, Lucy Punch, Diane Morgan, Paul Ready, Margaret Cabourn-Smith, and Oliver Chris.Meanwhile, BBC Three has commissions the first season of the A Brief History of Tim TV show,...

Louisa Mellor Oct 6, 2016

Brilliant! The BBC has ordered a full series of new comedy Motherland, and of its rebooted Porridge starring Kevin Bishop...

Two new comedies are coming to the BBC: Motherland, written by the winning combination of Graham Linehan, Sharon Horgan, Holly Walsh and Helen Linehan, and a rebooted version of Porridge, from original creators Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais. 

Both part of the BBC's recent Landmark Sitcom season, the pilot for Motherland took an acerbic look at modern middle-class parenting. Starring Anna Maxwell Martin--an absolute treat to see in a comedic role--as harassed working mother of two Julia, it showed her dealings with playground queen bee Amanda (Lucy Punch), chaotic social outcast Liz (Diane Morgan) and eager-to-please stay at home dad Kevin (Paul Ready). 

Sharp, well-observed and caustic about the smug, competitive cliques that form in the world of play dates and PTA committees, it was...

Exclusive: There are currently three competing Hatton Garden projects about the elderly London thieves who pulled off what’s billed as the biggest burglary in English legal history. One of them hails from producer Arthur Sarkissian and Chinese producing partner Bruno Wu. That version has now set Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais to pen the script for a UK fall shoot under the provisional title The Hatton Garden Story. The partners, who are producing under their Peak Time Entertainment banner, have also teamed with the chief prosecutor in the case, Philip Evans, who will serve as technical advisor. Peak Time previously acquired the rights to Dan Bilefksy’s New York Times reportage on the trial.

Clement and La Frenais are Emmy winners whose credits include such TV series as Tracey Takes On and Spies Of Warsaw. Their feature credits include Roger Donaldson’s 2008 The Bank Job; DreamWorks’ 2006 animated film...

Exclusive: There are currently three competing Hatton Garden projects about the elderly London thieves who pulled off what’s billed as the biggest burglary in English legal history. One of them hails from producer Arthur Sarkissian and Chinese producing partner Bruno Wu. That version has now set Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais to pen the script for a UK fall shoot under the provisional title The Hatton Garden Story. The partners, who are producing under their Peak Time…...

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Co-director Rocky Morton on where he thinks 1993's Super Mario Bros movie, starring Bob Hoskins, went wrong...

Nintendo is only now cautiously exploring bringing more of its characters to the movies, and part of the reason is arguably given how it got its fingers burnt with 1993’s notorious Super Mario Bros movie. It would be fair to say that Nintendo was not happy with the movie. At all.

But then even through some form of rose-tinted specs, Super Mario Bros is not a good film, and time, if anything, has been unkinder to it. In a new interview with SciFi Now, co-director Rocky Morton – who made the film with Annabel Jankel - has been looking back at why he think it went wrong.

“Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais’ [original] script was the script that Annabel and I wanted to make”, he said. “It was a different script,...

For years, Hollywood has had an incredibly arduous time figuring out how to properly bring a video game to life on the silver screen. The results of these efforts range from mediocre to downright awful. One of the worst offenders of the cinematic video game genre came in the form of Super Mario Bros. in 1993. The film’s low quality has become nothing if not iconic, and now the director of the film seems to have a reason for why the project fell so flat. In a recent interview with SciFiNow, Super Mario Bros. director Rocky Morton explained what he thinks went wrong with the infamously bad video game movie. He said: Yeah, because Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais’ script was the script that Annabel and I wanted to make. It was a different script, and the actors were all brought onboard for that script, and ...

In the summer of 1993, Super Mario Bros. was greeted by awful reviews and grossed just $20 million at the box office on a budget of $48 million. Though the film was praised by many critics for its visual flair, the script was almost universally panned. Wrote James Berardinelli: "As everyone knows, arcade-style diversions are not known for strong, original narratives or well-developed characters. In that sense, this film is worthy of its inspiration." Ouch! Now, co-director Rocky Morton (who helmed the film alongside his creative partner and future wife Annabel Jankel) has spoken out on the "harrowing" experience of directing the video game adaptation in an interview with SciFiNow (via Uproxx). He's not kidding! Here are a few highlights from the conversation, which you can and should read in full here. 1. They cast Bob Hoskins as Mario because he was "available" (but really wanted Danny De Vito). "Danny De Vito turned us down.

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It's the final entry in Wesley's top 100 Christmas TV episodes of all time list, numbers 20 to 1. Merry Christmas to all!

Read entries 100 - 81 here, entries 80 - 61 here, entries 60 - 41 here, and entries 40 - 21 here.

Since the medium’s infancy, viewers have enjoyed sharing holidays with their favourite television characters. We grow invested in our friends on screen over the years; spending Christmas with them is a rite of passage, a chance for us to share tradition from our world with the fictional ones we see on screen. Some shows embrace the season wholeheartedly, characters in good spirits and enjoying the trappings of the season; others skew a little darker, bringing the more oppressive, burdensome side of the holidays to life. Either way, Christmas episodes tend to demonstrate the strengths of our favourite series, and it’s long been a festive ritual of mine to wheel out old...

Christopher Biggins has slammed plans for a 'Porridge' remake. The 66-year-old actor has spoken out against the BBC's decision to bring back the classic prison sitcom, in which he played inmate Lukewarm, almost 40 years after it came to an end. He said: ''I wish they would leave these things alone. ''I wish they would go and find new ideas.'' 'Porridge' was a massive hit in the 70s and became a British classic because of Ronnie Barker's hilarious portrayal of inmate Norman 'Fletch' Fletcher. And although original writers Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais have agreed to write a new pilot in which Fletch's grandson...

'Porridge' is returning with a new pilot. The hit prison sitcom's writers Dick Clement, 77, and Ian La Frenais, 79, have revealed they're working on a new storyline that will feature the grandson of original character Fletcher, who was famously played by the late Ronnie Barker. La Frenais told the Sunday Times newspaper: ''He's called Fletch too and is a chip off the old block. He has what I'd call attitude. ''It will be set in a modern prison, while Hmp Slade was, of course, Victorian. We were asked by the BBC to do a revival and decided to set it right up...

Remember Kinvig, Clone, Not With A Bang? These are the UK sci-fi sitcoms you’re unlikely to see on comedy best-of lists…

With E4 sci-fi comedy commissions, Tripped and Aliens, and in-development Channel 4 projects, Space Ark and Graham Linehan/Adam Buxton collaboration The Cloud, in the works, a new crop of sci-fi sitcom could be making its way to UK TV.

Making funny sci-fi on a small-screen budget is tough enough without the additional pressure of having to attract viewers more traditionally down-to-earth in their sitcom tastes. Sci-fi sets and effects can be seen as prohibitively expensive by comedy commissioners (which is perhaps why the best UK sci-fi sitcoms of recent years has been on BBC Radio), and the genre’s niche status doesn’t scream mainstream hit. Over the years, one or two stand-outs have managed to straddle the sci-fi and comedy TV worlds, but plenty more have stumbled in the attempt.

Exclusive: Johnny Flynn, George Mackay to play “Cain and Abel of rock” Ray and Dave Davies.

Johnny Flynn (Clouds of Sils Maria) and George Mackay (Pride) are to play Ray and Dave Davies, respectively, in Recorded Picture Company’s biopic of legendary UK band The Kinks.

Director Julien Temple (London – The Modern Babylon) is set to shoot drama You Really Got Me later this year in the UK, with daughter Juno Temple (Far From the Madding Crowd) also on board to play Ray’s former wife, Raza, who also sang on key tracks.

HanWay is handling international sales in Cannes with a UK deal understood to be close.

The long-time passion project of Cannes veteran Jeremy Thomas (The Last Emperor) will focus on the often turbulent relationship between the brothers who fronted the iconic 1960’s band, famous for hits You Really Got Me and Waterloo Sunset.

BBC Films have backed the film while co-producers in Belgium are [link...

Our look at underappreciated films of the 80s continues, as we head back to 1988...

Either in terms of ticket sales or critical acclaim, 1988 was dominated by the likes of Rain Man, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Coming To America. It was the year Bruce Willis made the jump from TV to action star with Die Hard, and became a star in the process.

It was the year Leslie Nielsen made his own jump from the small to silver screen with Police Squad spin-off The Naked Gun, which sparked a hugely popular franchise of its own. Elsewhere, the eccentric Tim Burton scored one of the biggest hits of the year with Beetlejuice, the success of which would result in the birth of Batman a year later. And then there was Tom Cruise, who managed to make a drama about a student-turned-barman into a $170m hit, back when $170m was still an...

It was in mid-2011 when we first announced that a Sam Cooke biopic was in the works.  At the time, a script had already been written (by the screenwriters who penned Julie Taymor's "Across The Universe," and "The Commitments" - Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais), which was an adaptation of Peter Guralnick's 2005 bio, "Dream Boogie: The Triumph of Sam Cooke." The news came 4 years after author Guralnick produced the award-winning documentary "Sam Cooke: Legend," said to be "the only authorized documentary on Cooke."  The film was to cover Cooke's entire life (born in 1931, died in...

How do you rank perfection? Duncan has a go, as he lists the top 25 Jason Statham films...

For regular Den Of Geek readers, it will come as little surprise to see this list come round. We've chosen our favourite Statham films before, but such is the productivity of the great man, it was decided that a mere top ten was no longer large enough to contain his ever growing body of work. Last time I mentioned updating this piece to the man himself back in 2012 due to his insane workload, he cracked up and responded, “My productivity is overwhelming! 'Have a fucking day off!'”

Since this list has now expanded to encompass 25 of his movies, it seemed only right to include multiple sequels, with his big trio of action franchises all spawning some thoroughly entertaining fare worthy of mention, though I’ve tried to exclude the personal bias that...

BBC Two is 50 - the British Broadcasting Corporation's second eldest child hits the half-century mark today - Sunday, April 20.

Picking out the greatest shows from five decades of broadcasting seems like a near-impossible task, but never say that Digital Spy is easily cowed. These are - in our humble opinion - the channel's finest ever offerings.

BBC Two is 50: The Hour, Bottom and more shows to bring back

The rules are as follows: shows like Red Dwarf that originated on BBC Two are eligible, but shows better associated with another channel are not - say Top of the Pops, which aired on BBC One for the majority of its run but shifted to the sister channel for its final episodes.

Oh, and we're talking only original commissions - so no Us imports either. But even that barely narrows it down, so if you think there are any glaring omissions,...

The One and Only Ivan

Disney Pictures is in negotiations to acquire the screen rights to Katherine Applegate's 2011 novel "The One and Only Ivan". A writer is currently being sought to adapt the script into a live-action feature.

The story centers on the silverback gorilla Ivan, an elderly elephant named Stella and a stray dog dubbed Bob, who all live in a cage at a shopping center. The ape concocts a plan to escape back to the wild to protect this infant animal from their abusive owner. [Source: THR]

Pursuit

"Jack Ryan" film series producer Mace Neufeld has begun development of the $45 million-budget World War II thriller "Pursuit" for New Films International. No director is currently attached.

Ian La Frenais and Dick Clement penned the script set in 1944 as the Nazi regime begins to realize they've lost. They launch a desperate plan to assassinate President Franklin Delano Roosevelt at a Pow camp in Washington state.

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit producer Mace Neufeld is developing the World War II thriller Pursuit. Nesim Hason's New Films International is providing the financing for the $45 million project.

Ian La Frenais and Dick Clement wrote the script, which is set in 1944 as the Nazi regime begins to realize that the war is all but over. They launch a desperate attempt to crush the Allied attack with an assassination of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt at a Pow camp in Washington state.

The project does not have a director attached at this time, and it isn't clear when production will begin. Nfi recently brought on veteran executive Ann Beecroft as the company's new president, with the goal of moving further into production on projects such as Pursuit and The Sound and the Fury, which director-star James Franco recently wrapped production on after receiving $10 million from Nfi to complete shooting. The adaptation...

Odd List Ryan Lambie Simon Brew 13 Feb 2014 - 06:39

Our voyage through history's underappreciated films arrives at the year 2008 - another great year for lesser-seen gems...

For some, 2008 will be memorable as the year of The Dark Knight, with its astonishingly unhinged turn from the late Heath Ledger. Alternatively, it could be remembered as the year a legion Indiana Jones fans left cinemas glum-faced, having sat through Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull.

Elsewhere, Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan sang and danced on a Greek island in Mamma Mia!, while Will Smith played an alcoholic superhero in Hancock. But as usual, 2008 offered plenty of watchable movies outside the top 10, which is where we swoop in - like Hancock after a bottle of gin.

So as usual, here's our selection of 25 underappreciated films from the year 2008 - starting with a British horror film starring Michael Fassbender...

25. Eden Lake

James Watkins had written...

Television and stage producer known for Auf Wiedersehen, Pet and Birds of a Feather

The television producer Allan McKeown, who has died aged 67 of prostate cancer, created the groundbreaking Witzend Productions with the sitcom writers Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais and had hits on both sides of the Atlantic. It was one of the earliest independent production companies outside the British broadcasting establishment to find success within it.

A prime example of Witzend's attempts to push the boundaries of the medium – and McKeown's credit as executive producer – was Auf Wiedersehen, Pet (1983-86). The series, about a group of itinerant British builders in Germany – developed by Clement and La Frenais from an idea by Franc Roddam – went beyond the sitcom format to become one of the first in the comedy-drama genre.

ITV at first had no plans to make a second series but backtracked when up to 13 million viewers tuned in.

Allan McKeown, the producer and Tracey Ullman's husband of 30 years, died on Tuesday following a long battle with prostate cancer. He was 67.

Allan McKeown Dies

Together, McKeown and Ullman created Tracey Takes On… and State of the Union. Both shows earned an Emmy in 1997 for outstanding variety, musical or comedy series.

Prior to becoming a successful producer, Ullman worked as a hairdresser. Throughout his career as a stylist, the U.K.-born McKeown worked with the likes of Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Michael Caine and The Beatles.

After working for over 20 years as a hair dresser, Ullman became a commercial producer with James Garrett and Partners and eventually founded his own production company with Dick Clement and Ian Frenais. With Witzend, he made Pooridge and To Russia with Elton.

McKeown also has producing credits on TV shows Auf Wiedersehen, Lovejoy and Birds of a Feather. His stage producing credits...

UKTV's Gold will celebrate the 40th anniversary of iconic British sitcom Porridge with three new documentaries.

The classic Ronnie Barker series originally ran from 1974 to 1977 for three series and two Christmas specials.

Written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, the series also had a feature film and spin-off series, Going Straight. It was voted No.7 in a BBC poll for the greatest British sitcom of all time.

The new Gold documentaries will tell the real story behind the iconic programme, from the pilot episode, through to the Christmas specials and the spin-off follow-up.

Viewers will be taken on a tour of the pivotal places Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais visited during the creation and development of the series, including the pub where they first met, the prisons they researched, and the little known filming locations they used.

The show will also feature "classic sketches alongside rare and unseen...

The stars of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet will reunite for the show's 30th anniversary later this year.

A special weekend-long convention in Newcastle will mark the milestone in September, including a tour of locations used in the series.

The comedy followed a group of British construction workers overseas, launching in November 1983.

It ran for two series on ITV from 1983 to 1986, before returning on BBC One in 2002. A fourth series followed in 2004, along with a two-part finale special.

Timothy Spall, Kevin Whately, Jimmy Nail and Tim Healy led the cast, along with Gary Holton, Christopher Fairbank and Pat Roach.

Healy - who played team leader Dennis Patterson - is confirmed for the event, along with creator Franc Roddam and writers Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais.

Several other cast members are expected to confirm their attendance in the coming weeks.

"Thirty years, I can't believe where it's gone," said Healy. "We're having...

My mother Pat Ashton, who has died aged 82, was an actor for over four decades. Probably her most important TV role was that of Annie, wife of a burglar (Bob Hoskins) who comes out of prison to find that his old friend (John Thaw) has moved in, in Thick As Thieves (1974). When Yorkshire TV declined a second series, the writers Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais took the idea to the BBC, where it was developed into the much-loved series Porridge.

Pat was born and raised in Wood Green, north London. During her early years, the piano was the focus of entertainment at home, with her brother Richard playing all the popular songs of the day. Her grandmother had been a trapeze artist, performing in front of the tsar in Russia, and Pat quickly became fascinated with music hall, learned to tap-dance from an early age and went on to...

Tune in alert for BBC America the month of April through May 4. Please note their .spotlight of the week. programs. Screeners and photos are available. April 8 . April 13 **Spotlight Of The Week** Thursday April 11, 2013 . 10:00Pm Et/Pt The Graham Norton Show . Series Thirteen . Episode One New Premiere Day Guests: On Graham.s sofa tonight, movie star Tom Cruise, Scottish actor Gerard Butler, French actress and model Olga Kurylenko, and musical guests Paramore Rating: TV-14 HD: Yes Wednesday April 10, 2013 . 9:00Pm Et/Pt Spies Of Warsaw . Part Two Finale Adapted by renowned Emmy®-winning writing team Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais (Across the Universe, Tracey Takes On.) and executive produced by Richard...

Spies of Warsaw. co. BBC4

B Van Heusen

Former Doctor Who actor David Tennant made his much anticipated return to the BBC America tonight in the pre-World War II spy drama Spies of Warsaw. This new adaptation of Alan Furst’s book was penned by Ian La Frenais and Dick Clement – the men who brought us such hits as Porridge and Auf Widersehen Pet. The duo might seem like an unlikely choice to write a straight laced spy drama given that their usual fare is best described as dramedy but in Spies of Warsaw they proved that they can write good dialogue for more serious minded performers than Ronnie Barker and Jimmy Nail.

Visually the show was similar to The Hour although the exterior scenes were obviously in Europe rather than London. David Tennant was very good as war-hero turned spy Colonel Jean-Francois Mercier even if he seemed a bit...

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: April 16, 2013

Price: DVD $19.98, Blu-ray $24.98

Studio: BBC Home Entertainment/Warner Home Video

Doctor Who steps into the past for BBC’s miniseries Spies of Warsaw.

Well, not Doctor Who exactly, but actor David Tennant (The Decoy Bride), playing Colonel Jean-Francois Mercier, a decorated hero of the 1914 war and new military attache at the French embassy in Warsaw.

In the years leading up to World War II, Mercier is drawn into a world of abduction, betrayal and intrigue in the diplomatic salons and back alleys of the city. He risks his life working in the shadows, amidst spies and others, and finds himself in a passionate love affair with Anna (Janet Montgomery, Black Swan), a Parisian lawyer for the League of Nations.

Spies of Warsaw premiered on BBC America on April 3 in the cable network’s Dramaville programming block. The 180-minute miniseries is based on the acclaimed novel...