News
Eleanor Worthington-Cox on the Process of Becoming ‘Gwen’
Eleanor Worthington-Cox was only 16 years old when the role of Gwen, the titular character of writer/director William McGregor’s thriller appeared on her radar, and if you ask the young actress, she’ll tell you it was one of the luckiest moments of her life.
Set in the isolated landscape of Northern Wales, Gwen is the story of a young woman who lives with her mother (Maxine Peake) and younger sister (Jodie Innes) on their family farm. As life spins out of control and the local mining company looming over their land, Gwen must step forward and take the lead to save her family and her home.
Worthington-Cox received the script for the film only four to six weeks before shooting began and within the space of two meetings was cast in the role which she calls a dream due to the freedom she was given by McGregor to explore the character.
“It was one of the most unusual jobs I’ve done because while were filming I was able to really create her with Will,” the actress explained in an interview with iHorror. “He spent eight years creating this project and this character. For him to trust me and let me do what I felt was right with the character…that was invaluable.”
That kind of trust was an asset on a project filmed entirely on location dealing with unexpected blizzards and numerous night shoots, but she says that kind of relationship permeated the entire crew and cast as filming progressed.
It especially came in handy with her co-stars.
“Honestly, I can say that it was one of the most rewarding experiences as an actor,” she says of working with Maxine Peake in the role of her mother, Elan. “To tap into that intensity and feel safe in that environment, that’s a rare thing. We managed to forge such a solid working relationship where we had trust and respect for each other so that we could actually deliver something where we had a lot of love underlying all the uncertainty that these characters go through.”
It was young Jodie Innes, however, who became her light through the darkness in a film filled with constantly building dread.
“We had this little six year old on board and she was the most incredible little sister I could have wished to work with,” Worthington-Cox explained. “She’s this little ray of sunshine bouncing around between scenes. It’s hard to feel upset or weighed down by the material when you have that by your side.”
McGregor immersed his cast in the environment of the film, going so far as to find a home that was built in the time period in which Gwen takes place and bringing in crew that was local to the area to repair it and make it “livable.”
“We were in Snowdonia in the wild,” she said. “It really transported us all. When you find yourself in a blizzard at 3 am wearing only a night dress, it not only makes you think about what this young woman would have gone through, but it also makes you appreciate how lucky you are to be able to escape back to a heated room when the scene is finished.”
As I mentioned earlier, the pressures on the character were many. Gwen’s mother falls ill and it’s up to her to take in crops and carry vegetables to market to sell, only to discover that no one will buy from her.
In one pivotal scene, she takes a crucifix hanging on the wall of the home and stares into the fire before finally throwing it into the flames.
“This is the story of a young woman who is keeping her family together despite the pressures of a patriarchal community and a society where it’s almost impossible for someone to have a different belief system,” the actress pointed out. “I think in that moment, Gwen was completely giving up on hope. Her faith, not so much in a God, but in her entire situation had dwindled to nothing at that point in the film.”
Watching Eleanor Worthington-Cox in this role is a bit of a revelation, and it’s not surprising that by the time she was cast as Gwen she’d already earned a BAFTA nomination.
Gwen is out in theaters and available on demand today. Make sure to check out this brilliant young actress in this inspired thriller!
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Movies
‘Evil Dead’ Film Franchise Getting TWO New Installments
It was a risk for Fede Alvarez to reboot Sam Raimi’s horror classic The Evil Dead in 2013, but that risk paid off and so did its spiritual sequel Evil Dead Rise in 2023. Now Deadline is reporting that the series is getting, not one, but two fresh entries.
We already knew about the Sébastien Vaniček upcoming film that delves into the Deadite universe and should be a proper sequel to the latest film, but we are broadsided that Francis Galluppi and Ghost House Pictures are doing a one-off project set in Raimi’s universe based off of an idea that Galluppi pitched to Raimi himself. That concept is being kept under wraps.
“Francis Galluppi is a storyteller who knows when to keep us waiting in simmering tension and when to hit us with explosive violence,” Raimi told Deadline. “He is a director that shows uncommon control in his feature debut.”
That feature is titled The Last Stop In Yuma County which will release theatrically in the United States on May 4. It follows a traveling salesman, “stranded at a rural Arizona rest stop,” and “is thrust into a dire hostage situation by the arrival of two bank robbers with no qualms about using cruelty-or cold, hard steel-to protect their bloodstained fortune.”
Galluppi is an award-winning sci-fi/horror shorts director whose acclaimed works include High Desert Hell and The Gemini Project. You can view the full edit of High Desert Hell and the teaser for Gemini below:
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Movies
‘Invisible Man 2’ Is “Closer Than Its Ever Been” to Happening
Elisabeth Moss in a very well-thought-out statement said in an interview for Happy Sad Confused that even though there have been some logistical issues for doing Invisible Man 2 there is hope on the horizon.
Podcast host Josh Horowitz asked about the follow-up and if Moss and director Leigh Whannell were any closer to cracking a solution to getting it made. “We are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” said Moss with a huge grin. You can see her reaction at the 35:52 mark in the below video.
Whannell is currently in New Zealand filming another monster movie for Universal, Wolf Man, which might be the spark that ignites Universal’s troubled Dark Universe concept which hasn’t gained any momentum since Tom Cruise’s failed attempt at resurrecting The Mummy.
Also, in the podcast video, Moss says she is not in the Wolf Man film so any speculation that it’s a crossover project is left in the air.
Meanwhile, Universal Studios is in the middle of constructing a year-round haunt house in Las Vegas which will showcase some of their classic cinematic monsters. Depending on attendance, this could be the boost the studio needs to get audiences interested in their creature IPs once more and to get more films made based on them.
The Las Vegas project is set to open in 2025, coinciding with their new proper theme park in Orlando called Epic Universe.
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News
Jake Gyllenhaal’s Thriller ‘Presumed Innocent’ Series Gets Early Release Date
Jake Gyllenhaal’s limited series Presumed Innocent is dropping on AppleTV+ on June 12 instead of June 14 as originally planned. The star, whose Road House reboot has brought mixed reviews on Amazon Prime, is embracing the small screen for the first time since his appearance on Homicide: Life on the Street in 1994.
Presumed Innocent is being produced by David E. Kelley, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, and Warner Bros. It is an adaptation of Scott Turow’s 1990 film in which Harrison Ford plays a lawyer doing double duty as an investigator looking for the murderer of his colleague.
These types of sexy thrillers were popular in the ’90s and usually contained twist endings. Here’s the trailer for the original:
According to Deadline, Presumed Innocent doesn’t stray far from the source material: “…the Presumed Innocent series will explore obsession, sex, politics and the power and limits of love as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together.”
Up next for Gyllenhaal is the Guy Ritchie action movie titled In the Grey scheduled for release in January 2025.
Presumed Innocent is an eight-episode limited series set to stream on AppleTV+ starting June 12.
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