From The Welwyn & Hatfield Times:
Universal Studios in California has loaned some of the outfits used in Elizabeth: The Golden Age for a new exhibition.
Parts of the movie, which stars Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush and Clive Owen, were filmed at the stately home.
And the display ties in with the 450th anniversary of Elizabeth I’s accession to the throne – which she discovered while she was at the Old Palace in Hatfield.
First up – Live in Ireland and have a baby due in July? If so, you might be able to get your child a part in the third season of “The Tudors”, which is now casting for the part of the baby Prince Edward (the future Edward VI). You can read more about it here, with contact details.
Second, for the first time the US Academy of Television Arts & Sciences has issued a short list for the shows being considered for Best Comedy and Best Drama series. Usually they just announce the final nominees, but this time they are releasing a list of 10 for each category. And you’ve probably guessed by now that “The Tudors” made the short list for drama. You can see the full list here.
Just in case anyone comes looking for these after last night’s finale of “The Tudors”, I thought I would go ahead and post links to these on both of the blogs.
The first is an excerpt from Kingston’s letter to Cromwell and the second is Anne’s speech at the scaffold. Both are modernized spelling versions. I think I got them from “Eyewitness to History” or a similar book.
I’ve only seen it in a couple of places, but it looks like there might be a movie version of the sequel to “The Other Boleyn Girl” – “The Boleyn Inheritance”, which goes on to the stories of Anne of Cleves, Kathryn Howard and Jane Parker Boleyn, George’s widow. I’ll post more if anything definite shows up.
Coming June 10 for the US and June 30 for the UK!
Here are the US Amazon links (regular and Blu-ray):
And the UK Amazon link:
And here is a .doc file of the Press Release for those who are interested!
I got an email from Showtime asking me to pass along the link for “The Tudors” at Metacritic:
http://www.metacritic.com/tv/shows/tudorsseason2?q=the%20tudors#users
You can add your own rating by clicking on “rate this tv show” under the Users rating button on the right hand side of the page.
It’s official.. we’ll be on to wives three and four next year! Filming will begin in June.
There are a ton of articles out there about it, so here is a just a sampling:
USA Today – Showtime orders more tales from ‘The Tudors’
Most of the rest of the articles seem to basically be excerpts from the press release, so I won’t bother linking to more… yeah, I’m lazy tonight. 🙂
I wasn’t planning on posting this originally, since it sort of covers territory of other articles I’ve recently posted, but since several people have mailed me the link, I guess I had better post it! 🙂
From The New York Times:
Among the many things for which he will be remembered, Paul Scofield, who died on Wednesday at 86, helped to usher in a whole era of classy, lushly produced costume films set in the Tudor period. He made the 16th century seem glamorous.
…
There have been lots of articles, but I thought this one was interesting because the writer addresses some issues that we discussed about the first season. I’ll pull a few quotes below:
The king’s physical appearance may be a minor point, really, when you consider the historical facts that “The Tudors” have played fast and loose with. And Michael Hirst, the show’s creator and writer, will defend every single decision.
“Showtime commissioned me to write an entertainment, a soap opera, and not history,” said Hirst, taking a break in an office at Ardmore Studios, near Dublin. “And we wanted people to watch it.”
It seems there have been practical moviemaking reasons for the misrepresentations. Take Henry’s sisters. In Season 1, Gabrielle Anwar played one, Princess Margaret, who marries an older man, the king of Spain, against her will. As any number of Internet history buffs will tell you, it was Henry’s other sister, Mary, who did that, and the older man was the king of France. So didn’t the writer do his research?
As it turns out, Hirst was well aware of both facts. But the list of characters already included a Princess Mary, Catherine of Aragon’s little daughter. “I didn’t want two Princess Marys on the call sheet,” he said, because it might have confused the crew. ” `Which one do you mean, Michael? Who do we dress?’ ”
As for Margaret/Mary’s husband, “The Tudors” had shown a French king in a different context in Season 1. Hirst feared that viewers might be confused, so he just chose another European country.
From The Telegraph:
Scofield, one of the finest classical actors of his generation, won his Academy award as well as a Bafta, in 1967 for his role as Sir Thomas More, the 16th century Lord Chancellor executed by Henry VIII, in the film of Robert Bolt
The first episode of the second season is now available through the Showtime website and through the podcast for the show (which you can find through the iTunes podcast directory). I just downloaded it myself to watch later at home. The file size for the podcast is over 600MB, so be careful if you have bandwidth caps (like I do at home… pesky satellite internet!).
(Tip o’ the French hood to Holly!)
Although I don’t intend to get into the habit of a bunch of funny You Tube videos here, I couldn’t resist to this one. Thanks to Stephen on the TudorTalk list for bringing it to our attention. BTW, it’s a parody of the “Leave Britney Alone” video, but you don’t necessarily have to have seen that to enjoy this one.
Here’s a link to the article from the New York Post on the current popularity of the Tudors that I was interviewed for and a few of you responded to the call for NY Tudor fans. It’s short, but kind of funny, since it sounds like a lot of us gave some of the same answers to why we think the Tudors remain popular today.
Since some folks have been catching advanced screenings and reviews are coming out in the news, I figured it was time to start an open thread. I may get a chance to catch it on Saturday, so I’ll post any thoughts I have then, if I do indeed get to see it.
I’m not sure how wide-spread these are, but Snickers candy bars have had a series of commercials, featuring our famously feasting Tudor king, Henry VIII. You can see a lot of them on the Snickersfeast You Tube channel. Embedded below is my favorite of the bunch, for reasons that will be obvious once you watch it.
Just in a follow-up to the Academy Awards nominations I mentioned about a month ago, Elizabeth The Golden Age picked up the Oscar for Best Costumes last night. Congrats!
You can see the full list of winners on the official Oscars site.
If you’re in the NYC area and are willing to talk about why you’re a fan of the Tudor era, then there is a reporter who would like to talk to you! If you’re interested, drop me a line at lara@tudorhistory.org and I’ll put you in touch with the reporter.
Update – I’ve heard from a few people now and passed on the addresses, so I think the reporter has enough people to talk with. Thanks to everyone who emailed!
I’ve seen a few articles come through my Google alerts about a Tudor influence on the catwalks at recent fashion shows, but these two take the cake:
The first is from Sonja Marie: Henry VIII hotpants star at Betty Jackson show
and this one from Foose: Who
A week after the big screen version debuts here in the States, the made-for-television version from 2003 will be released on DVD here. Below is the US Amazon link and a link to Amazon.co.uk for the UK version, which has been out for a while.
The Academy Award nominations were announced today and “Elizabeth The Golden Age” received 2 nominations. Cate Blanchett was nominated once again for her portrayal of Elizabeth I and the film also received a nomination for Costume Design.
The full list of nominations is available on their website.
