Moviefone Editorial

Tag: colin-firth

  • Colin Firth Returns in First ‘Kingsman: The Golden Circle’ Trailer

    We get a quick glimpse of the not-dead-after-all Harry Hart (Colin Firth) in the first trailer for “Kingsman: The Golden Circle,” as well as introductions to new characters played by Channing Tatum, Halle Berry, Julianne Moore and Jeff Bridges.

    In the trailer, we see Kingsman HQ blowing up, as well as Eggsy (Taron Egerton) reunited with Merlin (Mark Strong) and tangling with the shotgun-wielding cowboy played by Channing Tatum. Also in western gear: Jeff Bridges. We also get flashes of Julianne Moore, Halle Berry in glasses and Eggsy fighting with a one-armed man.The official synopsis for the sequel:

    “Kingsman: The Secret Service” introduced the world to Kingsman – an independent, international intelligence agency operating at the highest level of discretion, whose ultimate goal is to keep the world safe. In “Kingsman: The Golden Circle,” our heroes face a new challenge. When their headquarters are destroyed and the world is held hostage, their journey leads them to the discovery of an allied spy organization in the US called Statesman, dating back to the day they were both founded. In a new adventure that tests their agents’ strength and wits to the limit, these two elite secret organizations band together to defeat a ruthless common enemy, in order to save the world, something that’s becoming a bit of a habit for Eggsy…

    The movie opens September 29.

  • Yes, Colin Firth is Back in ‘Kingsman: The Golden Circle’

    The first footage from “Kingsman: The Golden Circle” was screened yesterday at CinemaCon to appreciative cheers, revealing that yes, Colin Firth is definitely back.

    Audiences also got a glimpse of Channing Tatum and his lethally sharp lasso and Eggsy (Taron Egerton) driving a nifty new spy car that’s equipped with missiles.

    According to THR, Firth returns as Harry, but he’s now sporting an eyepatch. (How very Nick Fury.) Egerton had already teased the return of his Oscar-winning costar last year:

    We also learn that Eggsy and Merlin (Mark Strong) are going up against an underworld organization whose members are unidentifiable, having removed their fingerprints and filed down their teeth.

    Joining the spy series for the second-go-round are Julianne Moore, Halle Berry, Jeff Bridges and Elton John.

    The sequel opens September 29.

    The official poster was released yesterday, with Egerton holding what looks like Indiana Jones’s bullwhip.

  • 5 Things You Need to Know Before You See ‘Bridget Jones’s Baby’

    Lovable klutz Bridget Jones (Renée Zellweger) is back.

    In “Bridget Jones’s Baby“, the British heroine is knocked up — and she doesn’t know if the father is long-time flame Mark Darcy (Colin Firth) or recent hook-up/internet dating millionaire Jack (Patrick Dempsey). What’s a girl to do?

    Here’s what you need to know about the third film in the franchise, which opens on September 16.1. Hugh Grant Is AWOL
    As his glaring absence from posters and ad campaigns might suggest, Grant’s roguish Daniel Cleaver character does not make an appearance. (Exactly why he’s missing is revealed early on in the film, but we won’t spoil that here.)

    2. It’s Really Funny
    Forget the meh 2004 second film (“Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason“). This movie — co-written by “Bridget Jones” author Helen Fielding, Emma Thompson (who costars as Bridget’s doctor). and Dan Mazer (“Borat”), delivers more genuine laughs than just about any comedy so far this year. The film centers on Bridget as she struggles with a bitchy millennial boss, pregnancy, and her two potential baby daddies.

    3. Paul Feig Almost Directed the Movie
    The “Bridesmaids” director was originally signed, but left due to the usual “creative differences.” Sharon Maguire, who directed 2001’s “Bridget Jones’s Diary,” returned to take the helm for the third film.

    4. You Don’t Need to Read the Book
    Why? Because the movie is not based on it.

    In the third Bridget Jones book, “Mad About the Boy,” published in 2013, Mark Darcy was (gasp!) killed off, leaving the now 51-year-old Bridget a widow with two children, a Twitter obsession, and a new younger man. Instead, it’s based on the columns Fielding wrote for The Independent in 2005 about being a 40-something woman trying to become a mother before it’s too late.

    5. Bridget Jones May Return
    When we talked to Zellweger, she said she’s definitely up for more Bridget Jones, likely involving her misadventures as a mother. That sound you hear is us buying our advance tix now.

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  • New ‘Bridget Jones’s Baby’ Trailer Delivers Dueling Dads

    bridget jones's baby, bridget jones, renee zellweger, colin firth, patrick dempseyThe new trailer for “Bridget Jones’s Baby” doubles down on the dueling baby daddy drama, pitting Mark (Colin Firth) and dashing American Jack (Patrick Dempsey) against each other on the doting father-to-be front.'Bridget Jones's Baby' (2016) Trailer

    New footage in this clip reveals that Bridget’s (Renee Zellweger) hot-and-heavy tryst with Jack occurs only days before she falls back into bed with her ex. That wonky timeline makes it impossible for Bridget and her OBGYN (Emma Thompson) to determine exactly when Ms. Jones conceived, and sets up the main plot of the film: Mark and Jack competitively vying for Bridget’s affections while the men attend doctor appointments, birthing classes, and eventually team up to carry her to the hospital to deliver. (Why they couldn’t have just called an ambulance or a cab, we may never know, but that’s a question best reserved for a non-rom-com.)

    In the midst of trying to sort out all those baby daddy issues, Bridget also has to decide who she wants to be the father — and ultimately end up with. Will it be the exciting new man who swept her off her feet, or the familiar one she can’t let go of after all these years? Fans will have to wait for the film to deliver its answer.

    “Bridget Jones’s Baby” is due in theaters on September 16.

    Photo credit: YouTube

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  • ‘Bridget Jones’s Diary’: 10 Things You (Probably) Didn’t Know About the Hit Comedy

    Hard to believe it’s been 15 years since “Bridget Jones’s Diary” surprised the world with blue soup, ugly Christmas sweaters, an unexpectedly funny Colin Firth, a shockingly nasty Hugh Grant, and a stunningly perfect English accent emerging from Texan Renée Zellweger.

    Since the film adaptation of Helen Fielding’s novel hit these shores on April 13, 2001, the awkward but lovable “singleton” heroine has been a worldwide favorite, spawning a 2004 sequel and a long-awaited third installment, “Bridget Jones’s Baby,” finally due for delivery this fall. To celebrate the film’s 15th anniversary this week, here are some behind-the-scenes facts you need to know.
    1. Helen Fielding’s worldwide bestseller started out as a series of columns in Britain’s Independent newspaper that loosely fictionalized the romantic misadventures of Fielding and her thirtysomething pals. Fielding acknowledged that she lifted her storyline from “Pride and Prejudice.” “Jane Austen’s plots are very good and have been market researched over a number of centuries so I decided simply to steal one of them,” Fielding joked. “I thought she wouldn’t mind, and anyway, she’s dead.”

    2. Director Sharon Maguire got the job in part because she was one of Fielding’s close friends; in fact, the character of Shazza (played by Sally Phillips) was based on Maguire.

    3. It took producers two years to find the perfect Bridget Jones. Among those considered were Cameron Diaz, Cate Blanchett, Emily Watson, Rachel Weisz (Maguire decided she was “too beautiful”), and Kate Winslet (who, at 24, was deemed too young). Toni Collette has said she turned the part down because she was busy acting on Broadway in “The Wild Party.”
    4. Zellweger finally won Maguire over, convincing her that her salty, Texas-bred sense of humor helped her empathize with the earthy Bridget. But when her casting was announced, many Brits were outraged over the idea of an American playing such a quintessentially English character. To learn Bridget’s British accent, Zellweger enlisted Barbara Berkery, the dialect coach who had guided Gwyneth Paltrow‘s Oscar-winning performance in “Shakespeare in Love.”

    5. Zellweger’s ultimate test came when she went undercover as Bridget Cavendish, taking on a Bridget Jones-like job as a publicist trainee at Picador, the London publishing firm where Fielding had worked while she wrote her novel. For two weeks, the actress learned the publishing business, practiced her accent, and successfully passed as a local; no one recognized her as the Hollywood leading lady of “Jerry Maguire.”
    6. The willowy actress also had to pull a “Raging Bull” and pack on weight to play the curvy Bridget. She famously gained 17 pounds on a diet of bagels, burgers, buttered biscuits, croissants, cheesecake, pizza, peanut butter, and protein shakes with ice cream.

    7. For Mark Darcy, the filmmakers had no other choice but Colin Firth, who had played Mr. Darcy in the celebrated 1995 BBC version of “Pride and Prejudice,” making women swoon throughout the English-speaking world. Among those who had developed a crush on Firth’s TV Darcy was Fielding, who name-checked the actor in her book. She was so intent on casting him in the film that the producers also hired Andrew Davies, who had scripted the Austen mini-series, to co-write the “Bridget Jones” screenplay with Fielding and British romantic comedy master Richard Curtis (“Four Weddings and a Funeral“). Firth, drawn by Davies’ presence and by the chance to spoof his own persona, accepted the role.8. At the time he was cast as cad Daniel Cleaver, Hugh Grant was known for stammering nice-guy roles in such Curtis comedies as “Four Weddings” and “Notting Hill.” He was thrilled to play someone with more of an edge, or, as he put it, “a character that was nearer to the real me.”

    9. The film cost a reported $26 million to produce. It earned back $72 million in North America and a total of $282 million worldwide.

    10. Zellweger was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar, a rarity for a comic performance. She lost to Halle Berry for “Monster’s Ball.” Two years later, Zellweger won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for “Cold Mountain,” a trophy many considered a make-up prize for her “Bridget Jones” snub.

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  • Here’s Why Bridget Jones Is So Much Thinner in ‘Baby’

    Renée Zellweger can never seem to find the Goldilocks zone when it comes to her looks, at least to the general public. When she was first cast in “Bridget Jones’s Diary,” she was considered too thin to play Helen Fielding’s (also British) character. In the sequel, there was talk that maybe she had gained too much weight. In the past year or so, there’s been a lot of chatter about the actress’s face not quite looking the same. And now the cast of “Bridget Jones’s Baby” is on the cover of Entertainment Weekly, with a story explaining why Renee’s Bridget is so skinny in the new movie, which comes out September 16, 2016.

    Here’s what director Sharon Maguire told Entertainment Weekly:

    We all really loved the notion that Bridget, 15 years on, had finally reached her ideal weight … somewhere between a UK size 10 or 12 … but still hadn’t solved any of her issues about love and loneliness. I think that one of the reasons the first film worked was not just because of the comedy but because people identified with Bridget’s fear of loneliness. It’s a universal fear. It’s still a prominent theme in the character’s journey even in the third film, and an integral point of access for the audience to empathize with Bridget.”

    Having Bridget be a little bit heavier was also a way for people to identify with her, since most of us are closer to Old School Bridg than New School. But having her finally reach her goal weight right before gaining pregnancy weight offers its own comedic potential. Plus, if Bridget is still Bridget, fans should still love her at any size.

    EW explained that, in this round, Bridget is a successful producer of a serious news program when she discovers she’s pregnant. However, she doesn’t know if the father is her off-and-on again lover Mark Darcy (Colin Firth) or newbie Jack Qwant (Patrick Dempsey). It’s kind of sad to think that Bridget and Mark are still off-and-on … but at least he’s not dead in this version. If they pull a Maury with the paternity test, we’re gonna have to root for Team Mark.

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  • Proof That Colin Firth Only Gets Better With Age

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    Mr. Darcy — we mean, Colin Firth — is about to turn 55, but this man is a fine wine that just seems to get more handsome with age. And we have the proof.

    Here’s photographic evidence that as the years go by, Colin Firth will be the most dapper guy in the room.

  • ‘Circle of Friends’ Cast: Where Are They Now? (PHOTOS)

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    “Circle of Friends” — based on the Maeve Binchy novel about a group of university students’ complicated love lives in 1950s Dublin — debuted in limited release on March 17, 1995. Its stars have gone on to much bigger things but, like them, we’re still very fond of the film that helped launch many of their careers.

    Minnie Driver, who played plainspoken Irish lass Bernadette “Benny” Hogan in her first major film role, recently told EW, “It gave me my whole career, that movie.” Just two years later, she was an Oscar nominee for “Good Will Hunting.”

    Where is the cast now? Over the past two decades, they’ve collected awards (including an Oscar and a Tony), headlined TV series, and more than one has ended up on “Game of Thrones.”circle of friends where are they now?

  • ‘Kingsman’ Star Taron Egerton on Cyclops, ‘Star Wars,’ and A-List Mentors (EXCLUSIVE)

    In this weekend’s deliriously entertaining spy movie send-up/celebration “Kingsman: The Secret Service,” Colin Firth plays a seasoned veteran working for a private agency who goes out of his way to recruit Eggsy, the son of a former colleague who is more rough-around-the-edges street tough than gentleman spy. Part of the fun of the movie is watching the way that Eggsy transforms, turning into a refined young man like, to use a reference point of the film, “My Fair Lady” (except with, you know, explicit violence) and in turn watching the young actor, Taron Egerton, bloom into a full-fledged movie star.

    Egerton is absolutely amazing in the movie, and the fact that he’s a relative unknown actually adds suspense to the proceedings, since you’re not entirely sure if he’ll make it through the training process and actually become a secret agent. And Hollywood seems to agree: even before “Kingsman: The Secret Service” had been released, Egerton’s name was being floated for the next “X-Men” movie in the role of a young Cyclops.

    Chatting with Egerton recently, we quizzed him about how he became involved in “Kingsman: The Secret Service,” whether or not he knew he nailed the audition (director Matthew Vaughn said that he auditioned hundreds of young actors), how much truth there was to those “X-Men” rumors, and whether or not he’s excited about the possibility of further “Kingsman” adventures.

    Moviefone: How did you initially become involved?

    Taron Egerton: I just got an audition from my agent and went along and did the audition. It’s probably the biggest audition I had done in my short career but it was very, very run of the mill.

    Did you have a feeling that you had nailed the audition? When did you know the part was yours?

    I guess I felt that it was highly, highly unlikely that they would cast someone so unknown in this role. But it was a very special set of circumstances where Matthew financed the movie himself so he was able to cast who he wanted, which is pretty unusual for a film of this scale. I never thought it was a foregone conclusion, ever, throughout the whole audition process. I knew that Matthew liked my audition but I was never more certain than that.

    What drew you to the material? Were you a fan of Mark Millar’s comic book?

    I read the script before I read the comic, so it was the script. The script had a very Matthew Vaughn quality — very provocative and mischievous and anarchic. It just jumped off the page. It was very visual in the way it was written; it had these enormous set pieces and these great characters and it was very, very funny. There was a multitude of reasons that I was drawn to it.

    As a young actor what was it like to get to work with these luminaries like Colin Firth, Mark Strong, and Samuel L. Jackson?

    It was really good. It was every bit as wonderful as you’d expect. It’s a great thrill to find yourself in a scene opposite someone you have admired for so many years. They are so, so good. It was amazing, actually, especially to have so many of them in one film.

    What about shooting the action sequences? Was that something that you were excited about getting to do?

    It was not a career that I ever envisioned for myself but I absolutely loved getting the chance to do it. It’s very demanding and time-consuming making those scenes and the preparation is also enormous for those scenes due to the choreography you have to learn and the level of physical fitness you have to achieve in order to be able to do them. But it’s really rewarding, especially to watch them back and see all of that work coupled with all of the brilliant editing and the cool comic book special effects are in there. They’re so much fun to watch. I’m really proud of them.

    Were you a huge fan of spy movies before this?

    As much as anyone. It’s a hugely popular genre so I’m as familiar as anyone else, really. I grew up with Bond.

    This is very much designed to be a franchise. Was that something that excited you — the idea of taking this character through an entire arc?

    Yeah, absolutely. I think there’s a really great story to be told and there are some brilliant directors out there but I would be most excited if I thought Matthew was going to do it again. I think it’s really his baby, it feels very him. I can’t imagine anyone else doing it.

    Have you talked to him at all?

    Absolutely. It’s by no means a foregone conclusion, it all depends on how it does at the box office. Yes, we’ve discussed ideas and obviously it’s not something I can talk about but I know Matthew has talked a little bit about it in some interviews. But it’s not my place to divulge any plot stuff. We’ve got an idea and it’s very, very cool but it’s really just a skeleton of an idea.

    People have to show up first.

    Yes, people have to show up first. None of this “Fifty Shades of Grey.”

    A few weeks ago you had been linked to playing Cyclops in “X-Men: Apocalypse.” How true were those reports?

    There were talks about it, but I never made it to the audition stages. They were very loose conversations. But they have found a brilliant young actor to do it. I actually think he’s better suited to it. He’s a lot younger than I am. I think with what they’re hoping to go with, that he’s a better choice.

    Is there another big franchise you’d want to be a part of?

    Bloody hell, if someone came around and said, “Do you want to play a part in ‘Star Wars’?”, then I think anyone would sit up and listen. But committing to a franchise is an enormous, enormous undertaking, and I’ve got one on my hands potentially. I want diversity from my career and I’m not sure… I don’t know. I think I might pursue something a little less expected next. I think that’s what people expect me to do now and that suggests to me that I probably shouldn’t do it. Because that’s boring, isn’t it? I want to surprise people and do different things and maybe do something that’s not quite financially rewarding.

    So what’s next for you then?

    I’m doing a movie with Hugh Jackman that Matthew is producing called “Eddie the Eagle.” It’s about a very bad Olympic ski jumper in 1988. I’m looking forward to that. It should be fun. It’ll be a comedy/drama and Jackman plays my coach.

    Going from Colin Firth to Hugh Jackman isn’t bad.

    I’ve decided that now I only make films where I have A-listers as my mentors.

    “Kingsman: The Secret Service” is in theaters now.
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  • Best of Late Night TV: Colin Firth’s Catch Phrase and Portia de Rossi’s ‘Arrested Development’ Scoop


    If you’re like us and value your sleep, you probably nodded off into your Ambien dreamland before the party started on post-prime time TV. Don’t worry; we’ve got you covered. Here’s the best of what happened last night on late night.

    Everyone’s favorite fancy talented Englishman, Colin Firth, visited “The Tonight Show” and played a game of “Catch Phrase” with Jack McBrayer and Triumph the Insult Comic Dog. Obviously, Colin and Triumph’s personalities were a match made in heaven.

    Keira Knightly stopped by “Jimmy Kimmel Live” and he bestowed tons of baby advice upon her –– because in case you haven’t noticed she’s super pregnant. His sage wisdom? Don’t abandon your baby when it pees on you. Noted.

    Of course, the best part of “Jimmy Kimmel Live” (no offense Keira!) was Cookie Monster, who was hired to write new jokes for the show. Naturally, all of them involved references to cookies, as all jokes in the world should.

    Portia de Rossi visited “Late Night with Seth Meyers” and confirmed that “deals are trying to be made” to bring back “Arrested Development” for another season. We are not worthy! Get the scoop right here:


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