P&P NewsBits: Keira Knightley to play Sugar Plum Fairy in Disney's The Nutcracker, Talulah Riley pens debut novel Acts of Love, Judi Dench to reprise Queen Victoria role in Victoria and Abdul, and more!

Some new movies, casting, release dates, and filming news info. featuring some P&P actors here that I thought I'd post them all in the same post...

Here's today's quick news round up of TV and film news (including casting calls, a film synopsis, trailers, release dates, festival news, etc.) of the following P&P (2005) actors: Keira Knightley, Matthew Macfadyen, Rosamund Pike, Kelly Reilly, Talulah Riley, Donald Sutherland, Tamzin Merchant, Judi Dench, and Penelope Wilton all in one post! 

First up...

(In Random Order)

Keira Knightley to Star as Sugar Plum Fairy in ‘The Nutcracker’ Live-Action Film (EXCLUSIVE)
(via Variety)

Keira Knightley will star as the Sugar Plum Fairy in Disney’s retelling of “The Nutcracker.” Mackenzie Foy is on board to play Clara, with Misty Copeland and Morgan Freeman also attached to the movie. The live-action film based on E.T.A. Hoffmann’s 1816 story “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King” — is titled “The Nutcracker and the Four Realms.” In the pic, one of Clara’s Christmas toys — a Nutcracker doll — comes to life and battles the evil Mouse King with seven heads. Read full article.

BBC Two Sets Premiere Date For 'Ripper Street' Season 4
(via TV Wise)

The fourth season of Ripper Street will premiere on BBC Two on Monday August 22nd at 9pm, it has been announced.

The drama series is produced by Tiger Aspect Productions and stars Matthew Macfadyen, Jerome Flynn and Adam Rothenberg. Read full article here.

Rosamund Pike, Daniel Bruhl & Vincent Cassel In Talks To Board Jose Padilha's 'Entebbe'
(via Deadline)

EXCLUSIVE: Rosamund Pike, Daniel Bruhl and Vincent Cassel are in talks to board Jose Padilha’s Entebbe for Brit production powerhouse Working Title. Participant is also on board as producer and in negotiations to fully finance. In what is a near-perfect union of filmmaker, subject and cast, this is shaping up to be a major motion picture likely to attract plenty of interest — particularly given recent world events. Greg Burke, who wrote Yann Demange’s brilliant ’71, is penning the screenplay.

Working Title’s Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner will produce alongside Kate Solomon.

The story of the Entebbe raid and hijackings has been told before on TV and in numerous docus. Peter Finch and Charles Bronson starred in the 1976 NBC movie of the week Raid On Entebbe directed by Irvin Kershner (The Empire Strikes Back), while a rival TV movie Victory At Entebbe was produced the same year at ABC starring Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster. The latest project reps the first time the story will be told for the big screen by a filmmaking team at the absolute top of its game.

Pike has a number of anticipated films rolling out over the coming months including the Weinstein Company’s World War II drama-adventure HHhH opposite Jason Clark and Jack O’Connell and Amma Asante’s A United Kingdom. She also has Scott Cooper’s Hostiles opposite Christian Bale in production as well as Brad Anderson’s High Wire Act opposite Jon Hamm. She is repped by United Agents and CAA. Read full article here.

In other Rosamund Pike news...

• Massive Attack Recruit Rosamund Pike for Haunting New Video

Amazon, Sky Team on Jez Butterworth's 'Britannia,' Starring Kelly Reilly
(via Variety)

Amazon Prime Video in the U.S. and European pay-TV company Sky are partnering on a major original drama series, “Britannia,” the first co-production between the companies. The 10-part series has been written by Jez Butterworth, whose stage play “Jerusalem” won a Tony for Mark Rylance, and whose movie credits include “Spectre,” Johnny Depp’s “Black Mass” and Tom Cruise’s “Edge of Tomorrow.”

The series will star Kelly Reilly (“True Detective,” “Sherlock Holmes,” “Bastille Day”), David Morrissey (“The Walking Dead,” “The Hollow Crown”), Zoe Wanamaker (“Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone,” “My Family”) and Stanley Weber (“Outlander”).

The show is set in AD 43 “as the Roman imperial army returns to crush the Celtic heart of Britannia — a mysterious land ruled by wild warrior women and powerful druids who can channel the powerful forces of the underworld,” according to a press statement. “Arch-rivals Kerra (Reilly) and Antedia (Wanamaker) must set their differences to one side in order to combat the terrifying Roman invasion, led by the towering figure of Aulus Plautius (Morrissey), as it cuts a swath through the Celtic resistance.”

“Britannia” is shooting on location in Prague and Wales, and will air on Sky 1 in the U.K. and Ireland, and be available on Amazon Prime Video in the U.S. next year. The international distribution rights (excluding the U.S.) for “Britannia” will be handled by Sky Vision. Read full article here.

Talulah Riley's debut novel Acts of Love 4:33PM
(via Glamour UK)

Talulah Riley makes us wonder what we've been doing with our time. She's an actress (Inception, Pride and Prejudice, The Boat That Rocked, St Trinian's...), tech entrepreneur (she co-founded Forrge, an app that allows low-paid workers to schedule their working hours), and now novelist - her debut Acts of Love is out now. Read full article here.


Watch Talulah's video she shared on Glamour UK introducing her debut novel and sharing her tips on how to become a published writer below...


Watch: Tamzin Merchant in Salem's Season 3 full-length trailer


WGN America released a full-length trailer for season 3 of “Salem” on Wednesday, ahead of its panel at Comic-Con 2016 last July.

The third installment of the supernatural thriller dawns with the triumph of the witches’ plan to remake the New World by bringing the devil to earth and making Salem his capital.

Season 3 stars Janet Montgomery, Madekwe, Shane West, Tamzin Merchant, Elise Eberle, Iddo Goldberg, Joe Doyle and Oliver Bell. Marilyn Manson will guest star.

Season 3 of “Salem” premieres during Halloween weekend.

Downton Abbey's Penelope Wilton in new TV One drama Brief Encounters
(via Stuff)

Set in 1982, this new six-part British drama focuses on four women who find themselves going through the process of organising Ann Summers underwear parties in their front rooms.

In this series created and written by Fay Rusling and Oriane Messina (Green Wing) and executive produced by Arabella McGuigan and Danielle Lux, Sophie Rundle (Peaky Blinders) stars as Steph, a frustrated cleaner who feels neglected.

But all that changes when she starts to develop a burgeoning career as an entrepreneur by persuading her friends – Nita (Angela Griffin, Lewis), Pauline (Penelope Wilton, Downton Abbey), Dawn (Sharon Rooney, My Mad Fat Diary) – to run parties selling lingerie in their homes. Read full article.

'Homeland' S6 Premiere Date
(via Access Hollywood)

Showtime has announced the premiere dates for "Homeland" and "Billions."
"Homeland" Season 6, starring Claire Danes and Mandy Patinkin, will return to the network on Sunday, January 15 at 9 PM ET/PT.

The announcements were made on Thursday during the Showtime portion of the Television Critics Association Summer Tour.

Both shows are filming in New York City this summer.

As previously announced by the network, "Homeland," which stars Danes, Patinkin, F. Murray Abraham and Rupert Friend, will find Carrie Mathison in Brooklyn, working at a foundation providing aid to Muslims living in the U.S.

Season 6 focuses on the "after effects of the U.S. presidential election, with the entire season taking place between election day and the inauguration," per the network. Read full article.

Gigandet, Sisto, Sutherland Join Fuqua's “Ice”

(via Dark Horizons) 

Cam Gigandet, Jeremy Sisto, Donald Sutherland and Ray Winstone are set to star in filmmaker Antoine Fuqua’s new drama series “Ice” for AT&T’s Audience network.

Produced through Fuqua Films and Entertainment One, the ten-episode drama follows the Green family as they plunge into the underbelly of the L.A. diamond trade.

Gigandet and Sisto play half-brothers brought together by their father (Sutherland) and Uncle (Winstone). When one of the brothers kills a prominent diamond dealer, the other must bail him out and save the family business while maneuvering among jewelry thugs, blood-diamond deals and the feds.

Fuqua will direct the first episode and serve as executive producer. Shooting begins this month in Vancouver for a premiere later this year.

  

Fast 7's Ali Fazal joins Judi Dench in Queen Victoria drama

(via Empire Online)

Stephen Frears’ next film, Victoria And Abdul, reunites Judi Dench with the role of Queen Victoria, one she’s already played to BAFTA-winning effect. Frears has now united her with a new co-star, too. Fast 7’s Ali Fazal will be playing Abdul in the true-life drama.

Bollywood actor Fazal is playing Abdul Karim, the Indian clerk who made the long voyage from the subcontinent to participate in the Queen’s Golden Jubilee in 1887 and somewhere along the way established a firm bond with Her Maj. 

An Indian Muslim, Abdul was Victoria’s close attendant for the last 15 years of her reign, earning from her the title of ‘munshi’ or ‘teacher’. Billy Elliot writer Lee Hall has crafted this unexpected friendship into a screenplay.

Working Title’s awards-savvy pair Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner are helping steer Victoria And Abdul to the screen as co-producers. Frears is expected to get underway later this year, with a 2017 release earmarked. Read full article.