You wait years to see an exciting period movie set amongst London’s West End theatres, and then two come along at once!
See How They Run, set in a 1950s West End, and The Critic, set earlier in the 1930’s, are both released in 2022/2023.
And both have great casts, with See How They Run starring Sam Rockwell and Saoirse Ronan, and The Critic starring Ian McKellen, Gemma Arterton and Mark Strong, plus a roll call of other great British stage and screen talent in each movie.
See How They Run is up first, coming out in September, with The Critic set for 2023.
Read more about the movies, below.
See How They Run
Searchlight Pictures has announced that it is releasing their new comedy thriller See How They Run (main picture) early, on 16 September 2022.
The movie stars Sam Rockwell and Saoirse Ronan, with David Oyelowo, Adrien Brody and Ruth Wilson. Also featuring are Harris Dickinson, Shirley Henderson, Sian Clifford, Jacob Fortune-Lloyd, Reece Shearsmith, Charlie Cooper, Pippa Bennett-Warner and Paul Chahidi.
Directed by Tom George (This Country), the movie set in the glamorous West End of the 1950s. In the film, plans are underway for a movie version of a new smash-hit West End play (apparently The Mousetrap given that Richard Attenborough is starring in the film-within-a-film although I can’t find confirmation of this), but it all comes to a halt when a key member of the crew is murdered.
World-weary Inspector Stoppard (Rockwell) and eager rookie Constable Stalker (Ronan) have to take on the case, and find themselves in the midst of a bizarre whodunit within the glamorous, sordid world of West End theatre! The pair are forced to investigate the mysterious homicide at their own peril.
See How They Run – a title not to be confused with the famous farce by Ray Cooney – is scripted by Mark Chappell, and produced by Damian Jones and Gina Carter.
Watch the trailer for See How They Run
The Critic
Ian McKellen, Gemma Arterton and Mark Strong headline this West End 1930s thriller based on Anthony Quinn’s novel “Curtain Call”. Lesley Manville, Romola Garai, Ben Barnes and Alfred Enoch also star, and which is currently filming in London.
The movie is set in 1934 London, where Ian McKellen plays Jimmy Erskine, the most feared drama critic in London, and Gemma Arterton plays Nina Land, an actress determined to win his favour. When Jimmy finds himself in trouble with his newspaper’s new owner, David Brooke (Mark Strong), Nina becomes entangled in a dangerous web of blackmail, deceit and murder.
Directed by Anand Tucker (Hilary and Jackie), the adaptation is written by British novelist Patrick Marber, who got an Oscar nod for Judi Dench film Notes on a Scandal.
The film is being financed and produced by West End Theatre impresario Bill Kenwright and his BKStudios, with its CEO David Gilbery exec producing. Also producing is Jolyon Symonds and his Fearless Minds company, who developed the project, along with Anand Tucker’s Seven Stories. Executive Producers include Mark Gordon, Tom Butterfield and Harry White for Culmination Productions; Naomi George for BKStudios; plus Patrick Marber and Anand Tucker.
Other BKStudios movies in the pipeline include The Kill Room starring Samuel L. Jackson and Uma Thurman, The Shepherd starring John Travolta, and a live stage capture of Bill Kenwright’s hit West End musical Heathers, which is playing at The Other Palace, a venue that Kenwright bought from Andrew Lloyd Webber in October 2021 – the same time that David Gilbery joined BKStudios as its new CEO.
Release date is 2023, and we can’t wait!
