BBCA Stars To Play Beatles in Yellow Submarine Remake

By | Posted on January 12th, 2010
  • There’s nothing new under the Hollywood sun: director Robert Zemeckis is doing a 3D remake of The Beatles‘ Yellow Submarine. Actors Cary Elwes, Dean Lennox Kelly, Peter Serafinowicz, and Adam Campbell will play George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and Ringo Starr, respectively.

    Elwes is, of course, best known for The Princess Bride; Seranfinowicz is all over British TV and has appeared on Spaced and Little Britain; and Campbell was the star of the spoofs Date Movie and Epic Movie.

    Dean Lennox Kelly may be the most familiar to BBC AMERICA viewers, however. He played William Shakespeare in the Doctor Who episode, “The Shakespeare Code”, werewolf Tully on Being Human, and Robin Hood’s dad on Robin Hood. Longtime BBCA viewers know him as barman Kev Ball on the sitcom Shameless.

    Here’s a clip of DLK playing Shakespeare on Doctor Who. See anything Lennonesque?

  • Before Christmas, departing Doctor Who exec producers Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner spoke at a BAFTA event titled “The Regeneration of Doctor Who.” Watch the 25-minute session here or watch a full-screen version on YouTube.
  • The BAFTAs, which air on BBC AMERICA Sunday, February 21st, announced the nominees for their Orange Rising Star award. As the title implies, it’s given each year to promising young stars, and the nominees were Jesse Eisenberg (Adventureland, The Squid and the Whale), Nicholas Hoult (Skins, A Single Man), Carey Mulligan (An Education), Tahar Rahim (A Prophet), and Kristen Stewart (Twilight). I would imagine this being a death match between Carey “The New Audrey” Mulligan and K-Stew, who will have all the Twilight fans stuffing the ballot box. Congrats to Nicholas Hoult, who has stepped out of the shadow of his Skins co-star Dev Patel to become a major Hollywood contender in his own right.

    By the way, you may be wondering, “Who the hell is Tahar Rahim?” Well, he plays an Arab prisoner in the acclaimed new French crime drama, A Prophet, and you can watch the trailer below:

  • The Guardian lists the top 50 TV dramas ever. The Sopranos is No. 1, followed by Brideshead Revisited and Our Friends in the North. Most people in the comments section are decrying the absence of GBH, I, Claudius, and Edge of Darkness, which has been remade into a Mel Gibson film. Personally, I would have ranked This Life much higher: it was the funny, sexy, maddeningly marvelous show so many American “young adult dramas” have tried – and failed – to be.
  • The Daily Telegraph interviews the female actresses of Skins.
  • Foxy Photo: Keira Knightley snuggles up to her boyfriend, actor Rupert Friend.(Daily Mail)
  • Yesterday, Simon Cowell announced he was ditching American Idol for an American version of X Factor. The Guardian‘s Steve Busfield wonders if X Factor is the new Big Brother, i.e. a reality franchise that has peaked? “While X Factor 2009 garnered the biggest ratings, it also became cooler to loathe it. And the quality slumped. There was no Leona Lewis this time around, even though Joe McElderry undoubtedly has a West End career ahead of him. The entertainment value of Jedward could not mask that.”
  • Russell Brand‘s new fiancée, pop star Katy Perry, has allegedly been seen visiting “baby boutiques.”(The Sun)
  • The Bulgarian man present at the death of Stephen Gately now says he had encounters over a two-year period with both Gately and Gately’s partner.(The Sun)

    Julie Walters shaved the front of her head to play late British politician Mo Mowlam in the TV movie, Mo. The two-time Oscar-nominated actress told Good Housekeeping (via The Daily Mail): “At the beginning, I thought I’d wear a wig with a bald spot at the front. But I went for a fitting and I was still there after four hours, and you could still see the joint. So I suggested shaving it instead, which was really exciting to start with, until I realized I looked like a monk! It was a very strange look, and I felt more naked than if I’d had no clothes on.”

  • Chef Marco Pierre White is suing his soon-to-be ex-wife’s lawyers for using his personal documents to submit as evidence in their divorce. In doing so, he could change the way British couples divorce forever. (The Times)
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