#OnTheBigScreen: Solo: A Star Wars Story, romance, dancing and opera

Solo: A Star Wars Story

Charting the adventure filled past of Han Solo – the iconic galactic scoundrel and one of the most beloved characters in cinema history – it offers fans a chance to ride along on Han Solo’s roller-coaster journey of self-discovery, which director Ron Howard describes as “about a character defining himself and the relationships that will form him.”

He adds, “It utilises Star Wars and the galaxy in really cool ways, but you don’t have to know anything about it. You don’t have to have seen another movie, read a comic book, seen a cartoon or played a video game. This is about Han discovering himself and the universe.”

Through a series of daring escapades deep within a dark and dangerous criminal underworld, Han Solo will meet his mighty future co-pilot Chewbacca and encounter the notorious gambler, Lando Calrissian, in a journey that sets the course of one of the Star Wars saga’s most unlikely heroes.

Directed by Ron Howard from a screenplay by Jonathan Kasdan and Lawrence Kasdan, the fun-filled galactic heist movie stars Alden Ehrenreich (Hail, Caesar!), Woody Harrelson (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri), Emilia Clarke (Me Before You, Game of Thrones), Donald Glover (Spider-Man: Homecoming), Thandie Newton (Gringo), Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag) and Paul Bettany (Captain America: Civil War). Joonas Suotamo (Star Wars: The Last Jedi) returns to play Chewbacca.

Biz readers can win a super Solo: A Star Wars Story Movie Hamper: click here for more info

Please Stand By

The world is a confusing place for Wendy (Dakota Fanning). As a fiercely independent and brilliant young woman with autism, Wendy longs to leave the regimen of her group home and return to life with her sister’s family and their new baby; but first she must prove herself.

As a lover of all-things-Star Trek, Wendy writes fantasy stories in her free time. To her, people are an indecipherable code; and she uses her Star Trek filter to understand them. When a screenplay competition presents itself, Wendy decides to finish her 500-page Star Trek script and enter. The problem now, is getting it there. In order to meet the deadline, Wendy must travel hundreds of miles outside her protected boundaries to submit her script in person.

With her little dog Pete in her purse and a few dollars in her pocket, Wendy boldly goes where she has never gone before. And with her no-nonsense therapist and big sister Audrey following close behind; Wendy, with the help of some colourful friends she meets along the way; must learn how to follow her dream and find her place in a world she hopes will accept her, just like everyone else.

Screenwriter Michael Golamco’s inspiration for Please Stand By came from a NY Times article about young girls with autism attending a summer camp. One girl in particular said her hobby was writing fan fiction along the lines of Lord of the Rings.

Finding Your Feet

When ‘Lady’ Sandra Abbott (Imelda Staunton) discovers that her husband of forty years is having an affair with her best friend, she seeks refuge with her estranged, older sister Bif (Celia Imrie). The two could not be more different – Sandra is a fish out of water next to her outspoken, serial dating, free-spirited sibling.

But different is just what Sandra needs and she reluctantly lets Bif drag her along to her community dance class, where gradually she starts finding her feet, and romance.

In this hilarious and heart-warming modern comedy, a colourful group of defiant and energetic ‘baby boomers’ show Sandra that retirement is only the beginning, and that divorce might just give her a whole new lease of life – and love.

Finding Your Feet is directed by Richard Loncraine, the British filmmaker best known for Richard III, Wimbledon and television credits including Emmy-nominated The Gathering Storm and My House in Umbria.

Cendrillon

The exhilarating Met Opera The 2017-18 Live in HD is drawing to a close with Cendrillon, on 26 May 2018

Cendrillon (Cinderella) is a ‘fairy tale’ opera performed in four acts by French composer Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Henri Caïn. It is based on French author Charles Perrault’s 1698 version of Cinderella, one of the most popular, modern-day fairy-tales.

Cendrillon (Joyce DiDonato) is ill-treated by her step-mother and step-sisters, but thanks to her fairy god mother (Kathleen Kim) she attends a gala ball where Prince Charming (mezzo-soprano, Alice Coote) is ordered to find a wife. Cendrillon attends the ball and leaves a glass slipper behind in a race against the clock. The prince seeks out woman, who enchanted him at the Ball and an emotional rollercoaster ensues.

There will be limited screenings from 26 May at Cinema Nouveau and select Ster-Kinekor sites: Rosebank Nouveau, Gateway Commercial, Brooklyn Nouveau and V&A Waterfront Nouveau. At Somerset and Blue Route Mall in Cape Town, Bedford Square in Johannesburg and Garden Route Mall in George.

Read more about the latest film releases: www.writingstudio.co.za