The Man Who Invented Christmas
The magical journey that led to the creation of Ebenezer Scrooge, Tiny Tim and other classic characters from A Christmas Carol, shows how Charles Dickens mixed real life inspirations with his vivid imagination to conjure up unforgettable characters and a timeless tale; forever changing the holiday season into the celebration we know today.
After a string of successful novels, world-renowned writer Dickens (Dan Stevens) has had three flops in a row. With the needs of his burgeoning family and his own extravagance rapidly emptying his pockets, Dickens grows desperate for another bestseller. Tormented by writer’s block and at odds with his publishers, he grasps at an idea for a sure-fire hit, a Christmas story he hopes will capture the imagination of his fans and solve his financial problems; but with only six weeks to write and publish the book before the holiday and without the support of his publishers – who question why anyone would ever read a book about Christmas – he will have to work feverishly to meet his deadline.
Based on Les Standiford’s 2008 book, The Man Who Invented Christmas: How Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol Rescued His Career and Revived Our Holiday Spirits, directed by Bharat Nalluri (Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day) from a screenplay by Susan Coyne (Mozart in the Jungle, Slings and Arrows).
The Skywalker saga continues as the heroes of The Force Awakens join the galactic legends in an epic adventure that unlocks age-old mysteries of the Force and shocking revelations of the past. It is the second installment in the Star Wars sequel trilogy following Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and resumes immediately after the events of The Force Awakens.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi is written and directed by Rian Johnson and stars Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong’o, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, Anthony Daniels, Gwendoline Christie, Kelly Marie Tran, Laura Dern and Benicio Del Toro.
Some of the films, writer and/ or director Rian Johnson looked at for inspiration while developing Star Wars: The Last Jedi include; 12 O’Clock High (1949), To Catch a Thief (1955) and Three Outlaw Samurai (1964).
In this action thriller, Jackie Chan is a humble London businessman whose long-buried past erupts in a revenge-fuelled vendetta when the only person left for him to love — his teenage daughter — dies in a senseless act of politically motivated terrorism. His relentless search to find the terrorists leads to a cat-and-mouse conflict with a British government official whose own past may hold the clues to the identities of the elusive killers.
Directed by Martin Campbell and written by David Marconi, the film is based on the 1992 novel The Chinaman by Stephen Leather. The British-Chinese co-production stars Jackie Chan, Pierce Brosnan, Charlie Murphy, Orla Brady, Liu Tao and Katie Leung.
This Nigerian Nollywood comedy follows the romance between Nonso Onwuka (Enyinna Nwigwe) and Deirdre (Daniella Down), the bridesmaid from London. The anticipated sequel is directed by Niyi Akinmolayan.
The Exterminating Angel is a surreal fantasy about a dinner party from which the guests can’t escape. Luis Buñuel’s classic 1962 film El Ángel Exterminador (The Exterminating Angel), which inspired Thomas Adès and librettist Tom Cairns’s opera, has an unusual premise: A sophisticated group of people at a dinner party find that, for reasons that are never explained or even deeply questioned, they cannot leave the room they are in.
Over an indeterminate period of time, their basest instincts emerge, and even when the survivors manage to escape, they find that they may be trapped again elsewhere. The film defies attempts at systematic analysis and even seems to denounce the need for answers as one of society’s many pathologies.
The Exterminating Angel will be screened on 16, 17, 19, 26 and 27 December 2017. The film will show at Cinema Nouveau and selected Ster-Kinekor sites: Rosebank Nouveau, Brooklyn Nouveau and V&A Waterfront Nouveau. At Somerset and Blue Route Mall in Cape Town and Bedford Square in Johannesburg.
Read more about the latest film releases: www.writingstudio.co.za
